Customer Reviews

Shadows of a Vietnam Veteran : Silent Victims

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
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this book was the best book I have ever read. when I receive the book I was only going to read a few chapters at a time, but when I started reading it I could not put it down. I never realized the war had put so much stress on the family.I think this book would be good therapy for any one that has had a family member in the vietnam war.It also covers topics of everyday life, and situations that alot of families have to deal with. The book is funny and sad. I laughed some and also cried some.it let me know of how sheltered that my life has been.If anyone has ever questioned their faith in GOD all they have to do is read this book and they will know that GOD does exist and prayer does work. Hats off to the author and her family for they are true survivors.I would recommend this book highly.

Shadows of a Vietnam Veteran: Silent Victims by Alicia J. Boyd is an amazing yet heart-wrenching book. It chronicles the life of a family and their trials and tribulations of dealing with the after effects of the Vietnam War. The author began up front saying she didn't use her real name or one of her children's but that everything else in the book was "true as I remember."

Having been previously married and with three children the author was surprised later on when she met her "true love" soldier. Once married they had three more children and the family blended well together.

The book begins with her new husband departing for Vietnam but then back tracks showing how Jack and Alicia met. Their first couple of duty stations together including a tour overseas. Then it was Jack's training for helicopters to get his wings and warrant officer bars. Shortly thereafter he received his orders "to report to the 1st Air Cavalry in Vietnam" in May 1966.

"The year seemed like an eternity." The family waited daily for his letters. When they arrived they were light and airy not delving into what was really happening. Likewise Alicia didn't report everything happening at home to Jack either. The family watched the news every night and worried about his safety knowing his unit was flying in very dangerous conditions.

When Jack arrived back in The World was when their problems began. The man they knew before his tour of duty in Vietnam was not the same man who returned to them. "Alcohol became his protector from the awful memories." At that time according to the author she "was aware of no counseling nor classes that the army offered to these returning soldiers or their families." Although he was now assigned as an instructor pilot he drank more and more. He finally turned to civilian life instead of chancing having to return to Vietnam.

Thus Alicia, Jack and their family began their journey of moving from place to place. They both held various jobs in different places. While there were good times, there seemed to be more bad ones. There were times when they "had no money, no jobs and no work prospects." Jack would go in and out of treatment programs. The children were affected, as was the marriage.

When really important things happened such as when one of their daughters was burned Jack was able to control himself and deal with the situations at hand. He finally got involved with the Post Traumatic Stress Clinic and that seemed to help-when he attended their sessions.

Throughout the book I kept waiting to read where Alicia and/or the children sought help for their own anguish. Unless I missed it, none of them ever went to an AL-ANON meeting. And while they weren't providing Jack with his alcohol they also didn't seem to be doing anything to make him stop other than take him to the VA Hospital occasionally.

This is a book that must be read. I know that many Veterans and their families have gone through similar events. AND sadly most everyone is too proud or afraid to ask for help. This family needed it. Had they gotten it right away perhaps their relationships wouldn't have fallen apart the way they did. I kept wishing that the author used her real name just because I know folks that might be able to help her and her family even now-years after the Vietnam War ended.

I read this book with great interest as my husband is also a Vietnam vet with PTSD. While Alicia Boyd's husband is certainly a victim of PTSD, he is primarily an alcoholic. I was saddened as I read the account of their life together and her husband's descent into the depths of alcoholism. I found little hope in this book and finished feeling that she needs to go to more alanon meetings and stop enabling his destructive behavior. I hope he finds recovery from the devastating disease of alcoholism.

This book is spellbounding. Very hard to put down. This family has endured and stayed together thru some extreme hard times. It is amazing to learn that this is how we treat our veterans. We all take our normal everday life for granted. This book shows us that we should count our blessings for our quiet normal life. All families would benefit from reading this book. We could all learn how to stick together and work through it. My praise goes out to this wonderful mother that continues on when it would have been much easier to just walk out. This is a sign of true love and commitment.

If you thought the Vietnam War was over, read again! Alicia J. Boyd boldly takes you to a different front line of battle and shares a gut-wrenching side of conflict tht many of us have never seen or want to admit to seeing. Deny it no longer: war is ugly, freedom is costly and we owe a tremendous debt to our veterans.

This is indeed a book you read in one sitting. You want so much to see the cliche's that your heart has grown to hope for. Not so in this book. It hits you like the private chill you get when a loved one opens their heart over a cup of coffee across your kitchen table. You know these people, you see them in the supermarket, at school functions with your kids and over the back fence mowing. You presume they have problems like everyone. You're wrong, and even as the story unfolds you're not sure you can handle the ride. You thought you'd buried Vietnam too when the terrible truth is the people we sent to fight it are fighting it still. I give this book 5 stars for Valor. The author isn't Tolstoy. She's still at War, she has no Peace. Didn't support our veterans the first time? Read this book and pray. Support them now.

This is undoubtedly a book that you must read in one sitting. Once you get started, there is no way to put it down. I could not wait to see what the family endured next. It is now so clear to me how simple and easy my life is. My heart, prayer and praise goes out to this mother who kept the family together when most people would take the easy way out and quit. What a tribute to the wonderful man she married and what a disgrace in the way that his country let him down when he returned home. How sad that in serving our country he has lost the quality of life that we all strive to have. Anyone that reads this book will know without a doubt that faith will take you through every trial that can ever come your way. I can only pray that in times of trial that I will have half the faith and courage that this family has shown. What strength it must have taken to survive!!

My heart went out to Alicia as I read her words. She is a candidate for a medal or maybe even sainthood while enduring the pain and suffering of watching as her husband's life becomes stoic and stagnant. Every wife whose husband went to Vietnam can relate in different ways to Alicia's feelings as well as the husband's, to the soldier's insensitive behavior toward their families.

The indifference of the country as these men returned from war and the continuous demeaning of that war is why Alicia's story is so powerful. Alicia is most certainly a silent victim.