Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
It's hard to leave , September 19, 2008
I defy the reader of this book not to read this in one sitting! It's almost impossible to put down. The authoer, Jim stewart, in his writing debut, expresses himself so clearly, emotionally and graphically, you get visual pitcures in your mind of the descriptions you read! There is a part of everyone's that everyone experienced that the reader will be able to identify within the pages of this book. This is a story where Stewart looks back on his life, sadly interrupted by the Vietnam War, the loss of his lover, his daughter (and later, he finds out his son, too!) and the sadness of excommunication from his family because of his choices.On Death and Dying (Scribner Classics) Originally written as "The Ghosts of Vietnam"(renamed "The Angel of Vietnam" to improve marketability, the book starts off with a phrophetic quote:"Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions for your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great. look at my affliction and my pain, and forgive all my sins". You are frowarned that a "heavy story" is coming up. Stewart was never in combat or was fired upon by the enemyDesk Warrior: Memoirs of a Combat Remf, but he certainly was a psychological casualty, as his "wounding" in many ways hurt much more than a physical woundWalking Wounded: Men's Lives During and Since the Vietnam War (Frontiers in Psychotherapy) Stewart starts off the book asserting that most of the Vietnam Vets today, aside from those involved in some of the unfortunate tragedies of the war (the My Lai Massacre, for instance)After the Massacre: Commemoration and Consolation in Ha My and My Lai (Asia: Local Studies/Global Themes)I don't regret their tours of duty and wouldn't change any of it, whether positive or negative. Men, Stress, and Vietnam. They very much resent the undeserving and false stereotypes heaped upon them, such as "baby-killer, "junkie" and "loser: for many years after the end of the war. Stewart has the intelligence to look back at it philosophically and sum up the American Experience, and his personally as:"to me there are no "gooks", it was a nation at war, and although I may not have understood it much then, I have come to realize that it was a country fighting for it's future. We were part of their struggle whether we accepted that faqct or not. Individually we hhad a tremendous impact on the country and it's people. After all, we were there for a long time and going to be there forever, weren't we? We wouldn't turn tail and run. we wouldn't be pushed out anbd defeated by the Communists like the French wereDien Bien Phu: The Epic Battle America Forgot (History of War) We would stay and build. We would always be in Vietnam. Of course, we didn'y stay. We looked over our shoulders and hoped it would all just quietly go away and be behind us, like a bad dream that never really happened. But it has never gone away. it will always be with us far beyond the dying breath of the last vietnam Vet. The legacy will remain". Unfortunately, some of that legacy is currently having disasterous results, with premature deaths and birth defects occurring in later generations as a consequence of "Dioxin", the poisonous chemical used to defoliate the jungl and deny the enemy it's sanctuary, as well as Vets that are still limping around with permanently disabling injuries.Agent Orange on Trial: Mass Toxic Disasters in the Courts, Enlarged EditionThe Veteran's Survival Guide: How to File and Collect on VA Claims, Second EditionAn Operators Manual for Combat PTSD: Essays for CopingTo support the actual combatant in the jungles and rice paddies, for every grunt you had 10 "R.E.M.F's (rear-echelon men-I can't use the exact obscenity-sorry!) in the background safe from combat and engaged in suppoting roles.REMF "War Stories" 17TH CAG - Nha Trang, Vietnam - 1969Mr. Stewart was one of those. Growing up Fair Haven, Md.Stewart describes his childhood which was one of happiness and financial hardshipConsequences of Growing Up Poor Stewart explains that his first glimpse of sex was only to "mate" as he relates this story: The cellar was also where dad would breed his Beagles. I was not allowed to watch. Any image of sex, even animals breeding was something children were made to turn away from. Often times, his brother, Uncle Fred, would come and help. I'm not sure why it took two grown men to breed two dogs, but I guess that was the wonder of sex. I certainly wondered about it."As the reader will see, Stewart's ideas of sex and children will continue to be confused later in life. Initially attracted to baseball, Stewart realized that his prospects at being a professional baseball player were dim when he realized that he couldn't hit a curveball. As a teenager, a close friend gets a guitar, and Jim is jealous. his father gets him one and he bacomes an accomplished strummer until one day tragedy him him. Jim has two brothers. One, John, was alot older than him and joined the Air Force, leaving home when Jim was young. His second brother, Bodb, was only three years older than him and also joined the Air Force. in 1963, Stewart learned that his father had a lethal form of Leukemia and had less than one year to live. Home without his brothers, Jim was forced to take care of his rapidly declining fatherunitl his tearful death. there is an anecdote of a very painful story where Jim and his brother Bob, on leave form the AirForce, take their father hunting one last time before his death. Jim's dad traps a buck and his little deerling family in tow, having a perfect shot. Stewart witnessed his father's inability to take that perfect shot, unable to kill the leader of thedeer's family. Jim believed that incident was his father's way of making peace with this animal, his impending death, and leaving this world. This story had me in tears, as it made me think of how poorly I dealt with my father dwindling down to nothing from a big, strapping man, the consequence of liver cancer, and my mother, who died instantly in front of me as I was talking to her from a massive cerebral stroke. There are tough descriptions of Stewart cleaning up his immobilized dad after solinig himself from incontinence. In this case, Stewart became "his father's father". there is also a story where Jim's dog, with a broken leg and internal injuries had to be euthanized as with his dad dying there was no monet to bring the animal to a vet. What follows is very hard to read tale of how Stewart had to kill his dog with a rifle-very hard! His father died shortly after-all before Stewart's 18th birthday! Incidentally, as a testiment to her loyalty devotion, Stewart's mom never dated nor remarried anyone. She died at age 81. Stewart graduated from high school with a "D" average, obviously suffering from depression and shock. He went to a baseball game to see the Philadelphia Phillies and saw an Army recruiting ad and decides to enlist. Flunking all technical tests, the recruiter proposed "Military police" to Stewart and he acquiesed. Needing to take an M.P. hearing test. Stewart fails that one too (too much guitar playing when he was young destroyed his hearing). Stewart talked to a sargent and told him that his grandfather was a police sargent. The sargent does Stewart a favor, "rubber stamps" his hearing test as passed, and Stewart finds himself aboard the largest troop carrier in the world in Sept. 1966, the "U.S.S. Buckner". Although returning for visits, Vietnam would be Stewart's home until July, 1970. However, more of Stewart's feeling became confused during basic training. Aside from being taunted and humiliated by a sadistic drill sargent who made fun of Stewart's double chin, he befriended a muscular, massive black G.I. named Ding Rhodes. Three days after basic training graduation, Stewart learns Rhodes is killed in a car accident. More tradedy, abandonment and loss would plague Stewart to the end of this book. Stewart arrived in Vietnam at Long Binh, before the massive American build-up of that city. He was eventally moved to Bien Hoa, and loses his virginity soon after to an underaged teenager being pimped to him by her father..for a whopping $2.00! Stewart finds brothers pimping sisters, dirt and corruption in Vietnam-anything goes! For a good description of this, see : "The Saigon Zoo:Vietnam's Other War;Sex, Drugs & Rock n Roll" by Pete Whalon ISBN#:0741420457 Stewart reflected on that experience with shame:"if I was supposed to feel invigorated, born into manhood, I didn't. How old was this girl? ? was that her father who wanted to know where the money was whaen I entered the shack? I felt guilty". Despite being warned of a dreaded venerial disease in S.E. Asia called "Black Syphillis", Stewart ignored that warning and as a consequence of losing his virginity to a prostitute, he contracted gonorrhea. Lying about his symptoms to get into sick bay, Stewart is busted upon exposure of his infection and after treatment is punished by being given latrine detail whereupon he must "burn feces" for waste disposal. Stewart is warned by his superior, Sgt. Aguirre: "always tell the truth, Stewart. No matter how much it hurts, tell the truth, son". Strange events keep happening to Stewart. He's in 'Nam for 3 months and as mentioneded gets VD, Get's drunk, passes out and...
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A Coming of Age Story, October 30, 2007
In "The Angel From Vietnam: A memoir of growing up, the Vietnam War, a daughter, and healing", author Jim Stewart reminisces back on his life, which included 4 years in-country. It is not your normal combat action story but actually a warm and at times tender loving story of a young man seeking to find himself during the war and the years afterwards. It is about a journey and not just a diary of where he has been and what he has done. You get inside his heart, as well as his head.
There is a touching scene from his experience as an MP in the Saigon area when he witnesses a little girl on a bike get killed by a truck. He never forgot that little girl, nor the image of her lying on the ground with half her skull missing. It haunts him in the background of his heart; and in a strange twist of fate, that tragic scene gets played out again later in life when he seeks to find his own daughter whom he left behind in Vietnam.
This book is both funny and sad. It is at times, spiritual as well as being very worldly but it is always entertaining. It reads very easily and for people who do not like typical war books, this is the one to read. This is not one of those blatant "I am a hero" with blood and gore stories. This book shows a different side of the war--the kind where crime, black markets and life behind the battle lines in Saigon and the cities are the focus. It is also about love and the loss of love.
This is a story of a man who never really got to enjoy being a father to his daughter; a man who lost his youth many years ago in a far-a-way place that still dreams inside him at night. Yes, there are still ghosts of Vietnam within him but he is finally at peace. This book should be on your reading list - it is well worth your time!
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A superlative memoir, September 29, 2007
First-time author Jim Stewart has written a raw and powerful memoir of his years in Vietnam and his life. Unlike many of the current Vietnam-era memoirs, Stewart's uncommonly poignant and well-written story details his four years in the `Nam without the blood, gore, or trauma so popular today. This is the story of a young man's coming of age and maturing as a human being while simultaneously dealing with a war, a callous family `back in the world', and his first real love and long-term relationship.
Stewart takes us back to his childhood, where he grew up in a poor, yet loving household, and how he tried re-create it with his young Vietnamese girlfriend, Mai. In the midst of the Tet Offensive and the later collapse of the country, Stewart and his girlfriend Mai attempt to findnormalcy in the insanity of Vietnam towards the end of the war. His relaxed yet detailed writing style allows the reader to begin to understand what it was like to live and work in Saigon, both for a Vietnamese and an American; where even such insignificant events as shopping and taking a taxi turn must be pre-planned. Stewart takes the reader directly into traffic with him, and lets him experience the sights, smells, and fear of life in Saigon
While the author was an MP instead of an infantryman and therefore believes himself possibly fortunate not seen any actual combat, his book is not really about the fighting in Vietnam; it's a story of the author, his dad, Mai, and their daughter Phuong - and it's a story well worth reading. Highly recommended !!
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