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Only The Dead Came Home: Vietnam's Hidden Casualties

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Only The Dead Came Home: Vietnam's Hidden Casualties is the personal testimony of Andy O'Meara, Jr., who served as a major with the 1st Cavalry Regiment (ARVN), and the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (US). O'Meara was decorated five times for valor. Only The Dead Came Home focuses as much upon the struggle to resume a normal life as it does upon the stress of war itself. Only The Dead Came Home offers a candidly personalized accounting of the life-altering scars that post-traumatic stress disorder can leave upon the rest of combat soldier's life. A sober, severe, and open account, Only The Dead Came Home is informative, empathetic, highly recommended reading.

Why does one write a book? To whom does the author 'aim' the book? What is
the purpose, why expend the effort? To make a political, a religious, or
some other statement, or just to sell something, a product, to whomever is
willing to buy it?

Having reviewed numerous books written by friends, commentaries on the Art
of Leadership, Professional works, from Classmates, others, the reviewer has
seen a LOT of emotions expressed, running the gamut from humor,
frustration - from within NYPD, to outright pain and suffering, baring of
the soul, from Classmates, other friends, which leads to the initial
questions expressed in the preceding paragraph.

WHY DID THE AUTHOR DO THIS?

This is the second book published by Andy O'Meara, Jr. reflecting on his
Army career; this one details his Vietnam experiences. In his prior work -
"ACCIDENTAL WARRIOR", Andy basically delivers his autobiography, touching
briefly on some of the battles in Vietnam, and his bout with PTSD.

In this work, "ONLY THE DEAD . . ." , he describes in greater detail, and
goes into much greater depth, his experiences with PTSD and the treatment,
the pain, the soul searching, involved in coming to grips with this malady.

The title is a bit of an enigma, until one realizes that the servicemen who
returned alive to this country came home to an entirely different nation
than the one they had left, a nation polarized by lying, scheming
politicians, and a media that was anti-military to begin with, and furious
with the Johnson Administration for lying to them, so that truly, the only
service personnel who returned to the 'home' they had left, were the 'Dead'.

As the author phrases it, 'only the dead', who returned in caskets, were not
persecuted and/or demonized by the zealots of the anti-war movement, or at
least they never knew that they were being denounced and abandoned by those
they sacrificed for; served to protect from communism.

Thus, those who returned in coffins were 'home' in the sense that they were
beyond the pain and emotional suffering of their comrades who survived the
battles only to discover that they were hated and vilified by the enemies of
America, those enemies resident within her borders!

Many times the author contemplated taking his own life in a futile attempt
to end the vilification and persecution, but ultimately, in the end, refused
to carry out the sentence imposed by the New Left, on those who were
faithful to their country.

In the book he tells the story of soldiers who shared hospital wards with
him while he was recovering from wounds that almost cost him his leg,
soldiers who would call home seeking a modicum of emotional support, and
instead be berated by a loved one for fighting in the war, or for not
deserting while they had a chance; or situations where wounded veterans were
debarking from aircraft, some ambulatory, some on litters, who were spit
upon, reviled by the 'flower children', because they were 'baby killers'.

Although the author is still alive and well, still here, as with all the
other Vietnam Veterans, he feels that he has been changed forever. He writes
that it was a tough time to be a soldier, and they who served did not return
to the same land they left behind.

"Our comrades, our youth, our health, our sanity, our county vanished in the
years we lost at war."

In his two works to date, Andy O'Meara has come forth as an apologist for
the men and women in uniform who serve their nation, unheralded, often
reviled, and maltreated by politicians who failed to accept their
responsibility for the combat readiness of personnel and units, which were
allowed to atrophy, wither through neglect, through lack of funding, lack of
resources from DoD. What is particularly irksome to the reviewer are those
who opine from on high that military personnel are paid too much.

He writes to help Americans understand what happened back then - which seems
to be happening now, albeit to a lesser degree - where a certain segment of
society systematically attempts to make service personnel scapegoats for
doing what they do.

His is an attempt in book form to help the Vietnam veterans, indeed all
veterans, understand that what they did was honorable, despite charges by
the Left, by various and sundry 'celebrities', a select portion of the
'intelligentsia' that theirs was not an honorable cause.
It is a moving read; a needed first step toward restoring the dignity of the
men and women denied justice by the anti-war movement in America.

This book is an essential companion to the author's first book, "Accidental Warrior". It addresses Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), one of the least understood psychological "illnesses" and legacies of the Vietnam War. In this book Andy O'Meara tells of his encounters with this disease and reconstructs the manner in which it took over his life. He weaves a gripping story consisting of remembrances of battlefield experiences, the shattering of illusions, betrayal of trust, homefront harassment, family dissolution, and finding therapy and recovery. This book helps strip away the psycho-babble, demeaning skepticism, and bureaucratic insenstivity normally associated with descriptions of PTSD. It also caused me to reread Accidental Warrior with new appreciation.