Sunrise “Sunrise” took place in that Vietnam place. The mission happened at a fast pace. While it was a failure, the squad was not in disgrace. The true story will replace.
FLASHBACK: Vietnam: COVER-UP: PTSD
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle.
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
I am Alan C. Thomas, HMCM/USN, Ret. I served on active duty as a U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman from 1967-1970. Duty stations included three naval hospitals and overseas assignments aboard a Submarine Tender, and in the field with detachments of the 3rd and 5th U.S. Marines in Vietnam. I was assigned to a Marine squad in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam, during Studies and Observation Group (S.O.G.) mission " Sunrise" on February 23, 1970. Following service in the Naval Reserves and my Honorable Discharge, I completed the degree of Bachelor of Science in Environmental Health at the University of Georgia, Athens, GA. I enjoyed a career in the Industrial Hygiene/ Environmental Health professions and retired as the Manager, Environmental Health Programs for The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation after 20 years of service in 2008. Today, I enjoy writing my second book entitled Stingray - The Russians are Listening. I do book signing events and author interviews; where I seek to meet people, who will benefit from reading my healing memoir FLASHBACK Vietnam.... I am a life member of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), Patrick Henry Chapter 24.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Plea for Compassion,
By
This review is from: FLASHBACK: Vietnam: Cover-Up: PTSD (Paperback)
Williamsburg,Virginia author, Alan C. Thomas' novel Flashback, Vietnam Cover-Up is the compelling story of Rob Thomas, a 21-year-old hospital corpsman who took part in a failed, undercover rescue mission to free two POWs during the Vietnam War. Thomas has used his Vietnam experiences to craft a moving plea for compassion for veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder resulting from their war experiences.The novel has three parts. The first part delves into Rob Thomas' dysfunctional family background. The second part deals with his time in the military, and the third part details the long-term results of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In recent years, a new kind of nonfiction, called creative nonfiction, blurs the line between nonfiction and fiction. Thomas' book does the opposite. It is fiction, and yet reads like a memoir. Like many Americans, I do not often read about Vietnam. The last book I read, several years ago, about the war was Fortunate Son, the autobiography of Lewis B. Puller, son of World War II Marine General "Chesty" Puller. Thomas' book, like the Puller book, is memorable for the author's tormented, gripping voice. Thomas' wrenching story underlines the peculiar nature of the Vietnamese War. Unlike the war in Iraq where combatants are all volunteers, many Vietnam soldiers were draftees, or joined, as did Rob Thomas in the novel, to avoid the draft. Unlike Word War II or the Korean War where soldiers were also drafted, the Vietnam War was an unpopular war. It is one thing to fight, kill, and suffer in a just war with the support of your society, but quite another to do so without societal approval. The fictional character, Rob Thomas, smarts from societal rejection and insults received as a result of his war service. He teeters on the brink of sanity, dependent on many drugs, strengthened by the companionship of other disabled veterans, and thankful for the kindness of those who make the effort to understand. It is strong stuff. The novel is not without problems. Thomas devotes nearly the last 100 pages to Rob Thomas' struggles to get visitation rights with his son. Although this is related to the story in that the protagonist's plight results from his mental state, it comprised too much of the book. At the same time, the novel jumps at one point from 1980 to 2000 with almost no discussion or evaluation of the intervening time. At the front of the book, the publisher states that Thomas chose to have the book published without editorial input. An editor could have made this a stronger book. Flashback raises interesting questions. Did Rob Thomas' military service acerbate a pre-existing condition? How effective are military hospitals in treating Post Traumatic Shock Disorder? How many veterans are still suffering from their Viet Nam experiences? And what are the best solutions to their problems? Thomas' novel speaks eloquently for those voiceless veterans forever damaged by the war and still suffering from the on-going horrors of Traumatic Stress Disorder. I am not qualified to evaluate the military aspects of the book, but in the final analysis, I'm not sure they matter. The novel remains a startling evocation of a painful life, a life in which the Vietnam War is still not over.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another face of war.,
By
This review is from: FLASHBACK: Vietnam: Cover-Up: PTSD (Paperback)
What a complete crime against humanity is war. The terrible nature of war is not mitigated in any way by the absolute necessity to wage it. The cost of battle to an individual is enormous and often spans decades. For some people the battle does not have an ending; a nightmare that goes on and on, sometimes called PTSD.Military history is one of my favorite subjects. Having no military experience may be a disadvantage to a study of military history, but I believe it leaves me with no particular expectations. A study of a broad subject like military history necessarily involves some study of the societies and cultures (and materials and technologies) involved. I enjoyed this book. I consider PTSD to be an important aspect of military history not often treated in popular literature. The story was believable. A man went to war for his country, was emotionally injured in combat, and was unable to heal. The wounds went untreated apparently because they were not visible. Probably no one understands Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and I have never heard of a specific treatment for it. It helped to remember this was a war story. The narrator was wounded by enemy action as surely as the Marines he tried to save. His were the actions of a wounded man. In common with most war stories in my experience, there were sections I found hard to read. Decades after his war was over, resentment over untreated wounds seemed to fuel the narrator's anger. He experienced nightmares, flashbacks, and other episodes of loss of control. The government denied his problem existed, or even that the battle had occurred. He became agitated, and his actions disturbed people around him. The people closest to him sought to distance themselves from him. Perhaps this is an instinctive human response to danger perceived and not understood. However that may be, the narrator was effectively isolated and abandoned. The wounded man was left to fend for himself, to the outrage of his moral center. Punctuation, grammar, and other language conventions were left as the author wrote them. This was an obvious exercise in artistic license. The strange sentence and stream-of-consciousness constructions may have been intended to describe the broken mind of the narrator. Perhaps a study of the halting, disjointed language might reveal something of the nature of PTSD. In any event, the use of unusual language construction is nothing new in literature. At best it may resemble poetry; at worst the effort is wasted. I could not follow it easily on a single reading. Violence is part of the human heritage, and perhaps some day we human beings will find a way to control our tendency to feed the beast and see how far we can drive it. Until we do, minds as well as bodies will continue to be deliberately broken in anger, using the finest manufacturing methods and materials and the latest technologies available. As human knowledge advances we probably will come to an understanding of PTSD. What do you think will we do with it: treat the wounded, or find a more effective way to inflict it on our enemies?
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great buy!,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: FLASHBACK: Vietnam: Cover-Up: PTSD (Paperback)
We had a few cataloguing issues but this was a great deal!I'll definetely buy from this vendor again.I would recommend this vendor anytime, anywhere.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
