Customer Reviews

When You Hear The Bugle Call: Battling PTSD and the Unraveling of the American Conscience

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I had read author Peter Griffin's first book; which was basically prose and some thoughts and comments about his Vietnam Experiences--but his memoir, "When You Hear The Bugle Call" brings the reader a fuller spiritual and emotional story. It allows you to reach out and embrace his life with a much deeper understanding. You begin his tale with the opening of his early childhood when he is dealing with his older brother's death in the Korean War and then his life seems to slide right down the "emotional wormhole" of life.

You will find yourself walking with him and sharing his fears, observations, anxieties and physical discomfort as he does his "tour of duty" in Vietnam. That part of the book is a really great story up to there and certainly needs to be understood before continuing his life story when he becomes a police officer. However, his life after Nam takes you to the whole issue of PTSD and his lack of understanding about it. But the sad part is that no one around, including the VA at that time, fully understood what that whole issue was about.

Griffin draws you into his life story like a spider with a sticky web. You know that you are caught and are struggling and are getting yourself entangled emotionally but you cannot fight it and the more you read the more you are wound up in this man's personal life experiences. You hurt for him and scream injustice and want to reach out and rescue him from what is happening to him. But all the reader can do is turn the pages in hope that there is a light at the end of the tunnel some place awaiting him.

The book has punch and power and spiritual energy. It will move you and it will "piss you off" as well, that our country can be so insensitive to our veterans. In the end, the author does the right thing with his book and leads readers to a path out of despair as we see his life turning around. There is no doubt that the baring of his soul will help others. This book will lead some to inner healing as they too go out and seek help for themselves or their loved ones.

This is a riveting account of a warrior and God loving man who gave willing of his heart and soul in service to his country both as a soldier and as a police officer. He is no saint and he points out his own faults along his journey; but he is certainly a courageous man who you would want to cover your back for you!

This book, although not professionally written, makes up for any lack of polish with a life story narrative that will impact you like few others you will ever read. I fully endorse this book for all veterans and their families to read--no matter what war or conflict. This book can be a bridge to inner peace if one takes the lessons from this personal tale. It is a memoir that is on my short list of the truly honest books that deal with PTSD.

I met Pete "Grif" Griffin in a chance encounter on a street in Madison NC about three years ago. It was a meeting that changed my life. Much like "Grif" I had served in Vietnam with the 101 st Airborne Division, came home to the same welcome he received and had been retired early from a Public Service organization (Fire Department). We hadn't talked long before he began to tell me about PTSD, something I knew absolutely nothing about. My wife and I listened to what he had to say and we left with his phone number and e-mail address. I couldn't get the eerie parallel of our lives out of my mind.
I had always known something wasn't right after I got home from Vietnam. As it was it seemed that everyone knew something had changed me? Now some Thirty-Four years later we had a name. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. After a short period of time "Grif" got me in touch with the man mentioned in chapter thirty of his book, Mr. James O. Ward, (DSO) of the local VFW. From there I was on my way to learning about something that had tormented me for so many years. I was put in touch with Mr. Timothy Doherty, LCSW at my local VA Outpatient Clinic. I was immediately diagnosed with PTSD and have spent many, many hours with Mr. Doherty in the years since we first met. Many thanks to "Grif" for starting me down the road to understanding and many thanks to Mr. Doherty for his learned leadership on that road. Any Veteran or his family would benefit from reading "Grifs" book. You just might find yourself in there just like I did. Help is out there. You just need a " chance encounter" with " When You Hear The Bugle Call". Good things start with a clear understanding of PTSD. This book lays the foundation for veterans and their families to start down that road of understanding!

Stephen F. Baldwin
January 29, 2007

Pete Griffin has laid his soul open and told just how and why Post Combat Stress Disorder affects military combatants. I have to admire the way he so succinctly and yet so simply states his case for the demons that wrest tranquility from the lives of so many combat veterans.

In telling his life story he gives tribute to many friends and fellow soldiers who otherwise would never be mentioned by historians. It seems that the period in which he served in Vietnam, July 1965 to June 1966, is almost a forgotten time of that war. Griffin catalogs his personal experiences and the many battles of the "Nomads of Vietnam", the 1st Brigade (Separate)101st Airborne Division during this time. His account is amazingly accurate as to names, dates, times and actions.

Anyone desiring to understand the background of the majority of Americans who served in the Vietnam war need only to read this book. Peter Griffin comes from the heart and soul of everything that was good about America in the 1960's. His journey through life continues as has that of thousands of combat veterans from every era. For many, life continues to be lived in the world of a daily struggle experienced in a manner which only they who have served in combat can understand. "When You Hear The Bugle Call" attempts to let the outsider into that world while presenting the case for seeking and providing help for those suffering from Post Combat Stress Disorder. Griffin has fully met his objective.