Welcome Sky Soldiers Letters Home from Vietnam

Welcome Sky Soldiers Letters Home from Vietnam
Author: Mike Walker
Publisher: Page Publishing Inc
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2022-05-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1662470762

The author decided over a forty-year period to write about his experiences in South Vietnam with the Fourth Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry. His parents had managed to save every letter he had sent home during that time. What Mike decided to do with the help of his oldest granddaughter, Sierra, was to reproduce the letters in chronological order, with all the grammatical errors, misspellings, and fractured sentences as is. The letters were often written in harsh jungle conditions, under duress with pencil and often wet paper. He felt it would help convey, somewhat, the terrible conditions he and his fellow members of the "herd" were constantly under. Under each reproduced letter, he then wrote of happenings during that time, a diary of sorts. He also concluded he would not spend much time with the blood and guts but devote the majority of the work to the everyday goings-on, both funny and serious! The book begins with time spent in West Germany before moving on to South Vietnam. During the height of the war, more and more paratroopers were needed to fill the ranks of the fallen and discharged, so the Army started a second jump school, the original being at Fort Benning, Georgia, at Weisbaden Airforce Base, West Germany. He was then sent halfway around the world to South Vietnam, and the rest is history!

Dear America

Dear America
Author: Bernard Edelman
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2002-06-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780393323047

More than 25 years after the official end of the Vietnam War, "Dear America" allows readers to witness the war firsthand through the eyes of the men and women who served there. Excerpt in "Time" magazine.

Letters from Vietnam

Letters from Vietnam
Author: Bill Adler
Publisher: Presidio Press
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2007-12-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 030741583X

“No heroes, everyone did their part, and everyone was scared to death.” They are the words of soldier Mark W. Harms in 1968, summing up his combat experience during the Vietnam War. His stunning letter home is just one of hundreds featured in this unforgettable collection, Letters from Vietnam. In these affecting pages are the unadorned voices of men and women who fought–and, in some cases, fell–in America’s most controversial war. They bring new insights and imagery to a conflict that still haunts our hearts, consciences, and the conduct of our foreign policy. Here are the early days of the fight, when adopting a kitten, finding gold in a stream, or helping a local woman give birth were moments of beauty amid the brutality . . . shattering first-person accounts of firefights, ambushes, and bombings (“I know I will never be the same Joe.”–Marine Joe Pais) . . . and thoughtful, pained reflections on the purpose and progress of the entire Southeastern Asian cause (“All these lies about how we’re winning and what a great job we’re doing . . . It’s just not the same as WWII or the Korean War.” –Lt. John S. Taylor.) Here, too, are letters as vivid as scenes from a film–Brenda Rodgers’s description of her wedding to a soldier on the steps of Saigon City Hall . . . Airman First Class Frank Pilson’s recollection of President Johnson’s ceremonial dinner with the troops (“He looks tired and worn out–his is not an easy job”) . . . and, perhaps most poignant, Emil Spadafora’s beseeching of his mother to help him adopt an orphan who is a village’s only survivor (“This boy has nothing, and his future holds nothing for him over here.”) From fervent patriotism to awakening opposition, Letters from Vietnam captures the unmistakable echoes of this earlier era, as well as timeless expressions of hope, horror, fear, and faith.

Diary of a Sky Soldier

Diary of a Sky Soldier
Author: Perry Dee Ekker
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 440
Release: 2011-12-13
Genre: Vietnam War, 1961-1975
ISBN: 9781468033328

Diary of a Sky Soldier is a true story of a young American sent to the Vietnam War by his country. When he returned from Vietnam, he wanted nothing but absolute seclusion from the experience. He utterly blocked the traumatic experience from his mind and deliberately avoided all contact with anything that would remind him of the war. He did not, and could not, consciously share the experience or its related nightmares with anyone-not even those that he dearly loved. There was a sobering event that changed his emotions about Vietnam. When his mother and then his father passed away, he and his siblings were preparing the home for sale; he discovered a box of his Vietnam letters, newspaper clippings, and magazines in the house his mother had saved. With this find, he had a strong desire to write this book as a means of healing from the psychological trauma that burned within him. The driving force was a diary he kept in Vietnam that demonstrates the everyday emotions of war in a handwritten style. The book is in full color to reflect the true feelings of the scanned images of diary pages, letters, and photographs. This book is a day-to-day narrative based on the diary entries, and the personal war experience many years after he lived it. It portrays his feelings as a low-level private with the 173d Airborne Brigade working his way through combat to a squad leader buck sergeant. It expresses the hardships endured with the loss of true comradeship and the struggles of human attributes that are sacrificed during war. He left to serve his country when it was united in purpose, united in spirit, and united in a common bond of patriotism. He returned to a world of disinterest, of disbelief, of resentment, of oppression, outrage, neglect, and draft dodgers. He returned, no longer a young innocent boy, but bewildered, confused, and uncomfortable expressing experiences to an unfamiliar society-an opinionated country that would change America forever.

Letters from Home

Letters from Home
Author: J. Thompson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 423
Release: 2018-01-24
Genre:
ISBN: 9781976987304

The following letters transcribed are the property of David W. Thompson, (Saint Joseph, MO 1946-2011) received during his stint in Vietnam with the U.S. Army (1966-1968). The following letters are transcribed just as they are in written form with misspellings, vulgar word usage, lack of punctuation, off the wall jokes, greeting cards, local newspaper clippings, and pictures sent by friends and family. The bundle of letters, adding into the hundreds, was discovered after his passing in 2011. The family was unaware that he kept all the correspondence during that time for so many years; hidden away in an old Samsonite suitcase. Thus, the value these letters must have held to this soldier. A son, brother, uncle, friend, and my father.

Suitcase of Dreams

Suitcase of Dreams
Author: Tania Blanchard
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 367
Release: 2018-10-23
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1925596176

From the bestselling author of The Girl from Munich, a sweeping, dramatic tale of love and identity, inspired by a true story. After enduring the horror of Nazi Germany and the chaos of postwar occupation, Lotte Drescher and her family arrive in Australia in 1956 full of hope for a new life. It’s a land of opportunity, where Lotte and her husband Erich dream of giving their children the future they have always wanted. After years of struggling to find their feet as New Australians, Erich turns his skill as a wood carver into a successful business and Lotte makes a career out of her lifelong passion, photography. The sacrifices they have made finally seem worth it until Erich’s role in the trade union movement threatens to have him branded a communist and endanger their family. Then darker shadows of the past reach out to them from Germany, a world and a lifetime away. As the Vietnam War looms, an unexpected visitor forces Lotte to a turning point. Her decision will change her life forever . . . and will finally show her the true meaning of home. PRAISE FOR TANIA BLANCHARD ‘Captures the intensity of a brutal and unforgiving war, successfully weaving love, loss, desperation and, finally, hope into a gripping journey of self-discovery.’ Courier Mail ‘An epic tale, grand in scope … Packs an emotional punch that will reverberate far and wide.’ Weekly Times ‘A tumultuous journey from order to bedlam, and from naive acceptance of the status quo to the gradual getting of political wisdom.’ Sunday Age ‘An original and innovative take on the World War II genre that captures the hauntingly desperate essence of the war. Tania Blanchard has written yet another spectacular novel. Don’t miss this.’ Better Reading ‘A sweeping, dramatic tale of love and identity.’ Fraser Coast Chronicle

Letters Home

Letters Home
Author: K. langston
Publisher:
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2017-12-18
Genre:
ISBN: 9781981742424

A memoir of a soldier's letters home from Vietnam.

Dear Mom & Dad

Dear Mom & Dad
Author: Barry Bongberg
Publisher: Independently Published
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2021-02-02
Genre:
ISBN:

For over 50 years, a box sat unopened and collecting dust in Barry Bongberg's closet. Painstakingly preserved by his mother five decades earlier, the box contained nearly 300 letters home during his time in Vietnam. In 2020, Barry opened the box. Six months after his graduation from high school in California, Barry Bongberg was one of 2.2 million men drafted into the Vietnam War between the years of 1964 and 1973. His letters home to his parents span the entirety of his service and take the reader on a rollercoaster of emotions through his tour - the fear, the hopes and dreams, the romantic interests at home and abroad, and the loss of his comrades. "This is an historically accurate account of the pure hell our soldiers went through as they fought an enemy they did not know; in a land they were not familiar with; and for the most part, a cause they did not understand." - Charles Hildebrand "Ugliness was everywhere. Guns and bombs, blood and noise, and constant fear that kept this nervous kid up all night and scared all day. So he began writing letters to his parents. He started writing the first day he was in Nam and didn't stop until his last day. These letters home tell the tale of one young man's experience in hell." -Phillip Reeder This book is the contents of that dusty box: 288 unedited letters home during his 23 months in Vietnam, along with an insightful forward and epilogue by the author.

Dear America

Dear America
Author: Bernard Edelman
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Total Pages: 316
Release: 1985-05-01
Genre: Letters home from Vietnam
ISBN: 9785551012139