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More Than A Memory: Reflections of Viet Nam (Reflections of History)

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Victor R. Volkman has pieced together lots of different kinds of energy and emotions about the Vietnam war. In his anthology, "More Than A Memory: Reflections Of Viet Nam", he presents more than just the memories of veterans but insightful spiritual and emotional imprints from their very soul. There is much to like about this collection of stories, prose and poetry.

This book is not just a presentation of the typical Vietnam veterans, who like myself, never went to bed with the leftist ideology of the anti-war groups. It also gives the reader a different look at understanding those veterans who opposed the war. That may make some of us old veterans stand up and take notice - but in all fairness the editor chose not to censor, or limit the scope of the presentation. To me that is what I fought for. I do not enjoy having someone determine what is the proper thought process and this book clearly reveals a deep difference between the two groups. However, in the end, all of them wore the uniform and all of us suffered in our own ways.

The book is hard hitting and at times, tragic, dramatic, sad, angry, political, and even vulgar. In context of what the subject matter is and the emotional atmosphere involved it all works to give readers a gripping soulful look and feel for what these men went through. The book deals with PTSD and it lays out some of the social and phycological mine fields that they transverse in their daily lives. The words are like bullets to the heart and soul and there is plenty of ammunition for a true war for the soul!

This book is not an easy book to read emotionally - but I am grateful that these "memories" were captured so that we have a clearer view of what the real price of war is. There are some really moving personal tales in these pages. I hope that some veterans will not be tuned out by the chapter on the court martial. You do not have to agree with what these men did, or stood for, to see that they are damaged from the war as well.

Over-all this book gives us a good look at the issues of PTSD even when not directly focusing on that matter. My hope is that this book can serve as a bridge between veterans and those who did not serve. This is not an uplifting book to read but it is one that needs to be read and understood by all of us. In the end - war really is hell!

"More Than a Memory: Reflections of Viet Nam" is a stunning anthology of writings by veterans that includes first-person non-fiction narratives of serving in Vietnam, fictional stories about the war, poetry, tales of adjusting to civilian life after the war, and many memories of the war and how it continues to affect veterans' lives today. The diversity of "More Than a Memory" provides a more thorough understanding of the war experience than any one soldier's story could provide. Twelve authors have contributed forty-five different pieces of Vietnam war literature that leave a reader both shocked, grieving for the veterans' experiences, and better educated about what war does to an individual and a nation.

It is impossible to discuss the merits of all the works included in this anthology. Many of the stories are what the reader might expect--depictions of veterans experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder upon their return home, veterans trying to understand what it meant to have to kill other people, soldiers coping with the loss of comrades in battle, and soldiers returning home to a nation that failed to treat them with respect. In addition are many unexpected themes that add to a fuller understanding of the Vietnam War and how war haunts a person for the rest of his life. If the book is lacking in any way, it is the absence of women explaining how the war also haunted "her" life as a soldier or soldier's wife, but that is a small complaint compared to the multiple voices in this volume.

The various poems and stories, both fiction and non-fiction, can be divided up between those that take place during the war itself, and those that are reflections back upon the war. Many dramatic scenes depict the experiences of the war and trying to cope with immediate and dangerous events as they happen. Tom Skiens' story "Boat People" stands out for explaining how the war psychologically affected soldiers while they were in the midst of combat. Frightened constantly of being killed themselves, and never knowing who might be the enemy, soldiers often found themselves killing innocent people:

Killing because we are tired of others killing those around us. This was a revenge killing. Not that these two people in the boat had done anything to us personally, but simply because we needed to kill someone to help us feel like we could even the score. Killing to gain a sense of control over our lives. (p. 192)

Other stories describe the heartache of daily life in the war. In an excerpt from his book, "My Tour in Hell," David Powell tells how he did not want to make friends with his fellow soldiers because he feared if he became attached to someone, he would become weak and risk his own life for another, or become distracted by his own grief and thus get himself killed. Nevertheless, he becomes friends with a soldier, who consequently gets killed, and David finds himself writing home to console his friend's mother.

Other soldiers struggle with moral issues and how war forces them to act against their better natures. In "Witness to Rape" Tom Skiens writes about a soldier struggling to accept his fellow soldiers raping a Vietnamese woman; he wishes he could turn his gun on the soldiers to stop them, but he knows he will be court-martialed if he does. Years later, he still tries to justify his decision to stand by while the rape occurred.

The majority of the stories and poems reflect the book's title theme of memories. Many of the stories depict soldiers trying to function in civilian life while still haunted by the war. In "My Blue Block of Wood," Richard Boes depicts a soldier's first day home and how he immediately makes his family afraid of him, making him realize, "I'd brought the trauma home. I'm the f---in' enemy here" (p. 21). Sadly, Boes died of throat cancer just after "More Than a Memory" was released.

After years and decades of being home, the memories and trauma do not lessen for veterans. The return to the scenes of the war is another constant theme as Vietnam veterans try to make peace with their experiences. In Marc Levy's "Torque in Angkor Wat," a veteran returns to Cambodia with a friend who had not been in the war. The veteran becomes delusional, seeing Cambodian troops aiming at him when they are actually Cambodians playing Frisbee with him and his friend.

Other stories and essays explain how veterans struggle to deal with people who cannot understand their experiences. One of the more humorous yet pointed of these pieces is Alan Farrell's "Nothing So Bad It's Not Poetry" where the author talks about how poetry is a form of release for Vietnam veterans, but also how academics fail to understand war poetry despite their literary theories. During a poetry reading, one professor tries to pronounce the city "Quang Ngai." A veteran helps him, and then when the professor cannot pronounce other cities' names, the veteran repeatedly tells him the same pronunciation as for the first city without the professor catching on to how he is revealing his own ignorance.

In "Kangaroo Court Martial," Shirley Jolls and Walter Aponte reveal racism in the military by telling the story of two soldiers who went to prison for six and ten years simply for protesting the treatment of blacks in the United States during the race riots in Detroit.

Don Bodey's stunning first chapter to his award-winning novel "F.N.G." is included, in which a Vietnam veteran considers shooting his grandson to disable him so he cannot leave to serve in Iraq.

Numerous more works are included in "More Than a Memory: Reflections of Viet Nam." Most importantly, these stories and poems all work together to express the diversity and similarities of veteran experiences and how the Vietnam War remains with these veterans. Readers will come to understand why Vietnam veterans cannot simply "get over it." The final work in the anthology is titled "Whatever You Did in War Will Always be With You." It begins with a telling dialogue from an anonymous author.

VA Shrink: Were you in Vietnam?
Vietnam Vet: Yes.
VA Shrink: When were you there?
Vietnam Vet: Last night.

Vietnam Veterans cannot forget the war. Their experiences are not just memories, but events they live with everyday and every night. We honor them by reading their stories and never forgetting the sacrifices they made; many of them sacrificed their lives by dying, many more sacrificed their lives by surviving only to find it difficult to live again.

For more information about "More Than a Memory" as well as to read additional writings by its contributors, visit www.ReflectionsOfVietnam.com.

-- Tyler R. Tichelaar, Ph.D., author of The Marquette Trilogy

Length:: 6:26 Mins

Rich Raitano presents a montage of photos of the contributors to this volume and the men they served with. Some small excepts and praise from critics as well. Guaranteed to raise goosebumps.

More than A memory: Reflections of Vietnam

Victor R. Volkman

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Victor Volkman has taken different energy and emotions that people have about the Vietnam War

and placed them inside this book. He even presents the memories that the Veterans have with the insightful spiritual being from them. This book is not a typical book on veterans, but a view of the ideaology of different groups that oppsed the war. All Veterans wants everyone to stand up and take notice, and to me that is what they have fought so hard for. It even shows that everyone suffers through the war in some way, even if it is not a war that is in their country.

This book is sad and dramatic, but the greatest in the world. It has a dramatic atmosphere and gives readers the feeling of actually being in the war, and shows that it affects everyones daily lifes. It is not a easy book to read as your feelings can be hurt, but I loved it and I am grateful I have found this book. I am grateful that Victor R Volkman took the time to write it, as it hit my heart just the right way. I have given my copy to my uncle who is a veteran himself. I recommend this book to everyone, but especially to veterans and their families.

My friend, Dr. Bonnie Spence, treats a lot of Vietman Vets. She feels that this book will do a lot of healing for these men.

In poems, stories, essays, and photos, 15 veterans remember. Traumatic memories are never in the past: they live on and sear the mind every minute of every day. Inevitably, as time passes, in a desperate attempt to make sense of the essentially senseless, war veterans construct narratives and, occasionally, share them with others. Storytelling is a powerful form of therapy: it gives structure to chaos, voice to eerie silence, and supplant anguished despondence with budding hope. It restores the veterans' trust in their ability to connect and communicate and, therefore, their trust in humanity.

Traumas are concentric affairs: they affect not only the soldier, but also his family, his neighborhood, and, ultimately, his nation. This book is about exorcism: the demons of wars are cast into the outer darkness by words and phrases, by sentences and paragraphs. Poignant and heart-rending as it is, "More than a Memory" is a work of great courage and optimism, over triumph against all odds and amidst the horrors, of resurrection and renewal. It is nothing short of uplifting. Sam Vaknin, author of "Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited".