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Article: Vietnam Vets' Voices; Using Poetry to Pacify the Demons of Their War
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- May 30, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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In 1967, a news wire in the Newark Evening News newsroom
reported that Raymond Brereton had been killed in action in Vietnam.
Raymond "Gunner" Brereton's father, who worked there, feared it
was his son.
For two weeks he didn't speak, until the Red Cross confirmed
Gunner was still alive and well in the 101st Airborne Division.
Against all odds, the man killed had been another Raymond Brereton
from New Jersey, no relation or acquaintance.
Fifteen years later, when Gunner Brereton stood before his name
etched into the black reflective marble of the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial, "the most eerie feeling came over me," he reports. Not
like him "to be writing poems," he was moved that moment to ...