We Marched Through Hell: A Rural High School's Service in the Vietnam War and Life in its Aftermath

There is so much more to the Vietnam War than just the war itself. The Vietnam War was a complicated mixture of events and characters that eventually affected our lives, our country, and our history in a way that no other event could accomplish.

When trying to understand the war, it is impossible to fully grasp the experience without an intimate or close up view of the war before, during, and after it was over. Books, articles, and speeches from an expert or historian can certainly provide the hearer with a snapshot of the Vietnam War experience from that person’s perspective; however, there is no better resource about the war than hearing it directly from those who served there: the Vietnam War veterans.

And that is the intent of this book.

The vast majority of the information provided in this book comes from the mouths of those who were there. Those who were drafted or enlisted into a situation that ended up affecting their lives in unimaginable ways. When they first returned home from the war, the Vietnam War veterans were encouraged to not speak about their experiences, to keep their mouths shut and blend back into society, to not make any waves about their experiences in Vietnam and to try and forget the experience ever happened.

Some tried that, but for many, their silence did not allow them to emotionally handle the impending effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). They needed to talk to someone about their experiences in order to understand their behaviors. But most didn’t, and their silence only served to slow any progress to improving their emotional health that some were struggling with.

In addition, their silence also resulted in a misinformed public. The public needed to hear their stories, rather than just hear the protesters’ chanting or some politician’s bloviating. So, the silence of these war veterans did not provide the other side of the story that many in our country had not yet heard.

This book will provide stories, emotions, and experiences from the various stages young students from a rural high school found themselves in during the 1960s as they were getting close to graduation from high school and then staring at a war in their future. The book will also answer some questions such as:

How did it feel getting drafted? Did you consider going to Canada? What was it like to see the words “colored only” and “whites only” above the doors in the South where you went for training? How emotional was it to leave your family when you flew to Vietnam? What was the flight like going to Vietnam? What was your first impression of Vietnam when your plane landed there? What was it like to experience combat? What was it like to experience a friend who had been killed, or for you to be injured? How did it feel coming home again? What were you thinking or feeling when you first heard the protesters at the airport? How did the war impact your family or friends? Are you still feeling the effects of the war with PTSD or rehabilitation from physical injuries you received in Vietnam? Has the war really ended for you?

The Vietnam War veterans and their families and friends who were interviewed for this book were open about their feelings and experiences, and some of the answers to the questions above, and their explanations of what they experienced, may surprise you.