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Article: Grim memories still consume Vietnam veteran
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- November 24, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright (null) Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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SILVER SPRING, Md. James Michael volunteered for three tours of
duty in Vietnam. He was shot in the head. He was taken prisoner and
hanged from a tree.
He saw dead soldiers stacked "like cords of wood" and watched
children being blown to bits. He killed a civilian for his food and
clothes. "And I enjoyed it, too," he said.
Then he came home.
Except that Michael didn't come home fully. Seventeen years
after his return, a part of Michael is still stuck in Vietnam,
fighting, killing, mistrusting.
He has been unable to blend into the civilian society he last
enjoyed as a 17-year-old. His adult life is a nightmare he never
could have pictured then, when he thought joining the service ...