A Vet Writes from the desert of Saudi Arabia 1990
In response to my newspaper’s “to any service member letters from home program” we received this from a serviceman in the desert. This is an excerpt from the letter in which he speaks of his home in the Arkansas Ozarks and how much he misses his loved ones. He had this to say in regard to the war:
Letters from our War Veterans have an amazing effect on all of us stationed here in the desert. They’re often filled with good sound advice, humorous stories and word of encouragement. There is an amazing bond between soldiers of different generations. It’s good to know that others have been through what we’re going through and have survived: the not-knowing, the loneliness, the worrying about wives and children, parents and sweethearts left behind. It’s reassuring to know that even the guys who participated in World War II, Korea and Vietnam were plagued by the same self-doubts that we are plagued by. They had what it took when their time came and I’m sure that we will too.
ABOUT BEYOND THE MOON, my latest novel recently released: This is not an excerpt, for none of the book is in Glen’s POV, but this is what happened before Lt. Glen Tanner was first reported MIA, then later KIA over the killing fields of Vietnam. 1985
choppers
Glen took off for the Medevac mission early in the morning, the sky the color of swirls of cotton candy, his wife Ellie’s letter of betrayal wadded into his pocket. She was leaving him and his disappointment, hurt, and anger fueled every action. Blinded to enemy fire, angry at her betrayal, his emotions may have driven him into the danger that brought down the chopper. As a medevac chopper pilot he’d survived dozens of missions in his three tours of duty, hauling back the wounded, the dying and the dead. And always their screams and the smell of blood echoing in his head. He’d begun to think himself invincible.
That morning he was proved wrong. His plane went down. He survived long enough to stay hidden from the enemy for nearly twenty-four hours before they found him, trussed him up and herded him back to a tiny village where people threw rocks at him, spat on him and beat him with heavy sticks. Surely he wouldn’t be left behind to suffer and die. He vowed he would live for however long they kept him. For nine grueling years they sliced his skin, trapped him underwater, and left him hanging in a bamboo cage in a tree with dead and dying comrades. He fed on his hatred for the wife who had abandoned and betrayed him. He would live so he could return home and kill her.
But everything changed when Katie walked into the VA hospital where he was confined, sat next to him and took his hand. And here begins the story of the healing power of love.
Read the first chapter of this love story on Amazon. Beyond the Moon is available in print and Ebook.
Cover by Casey Cowan
“Oh my God. You wrote my story…” writes a Vietnam vet’s wife about Beyond the Moon.
Velda Brotherton 