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My 3rd short story, which I hope to finish today, contains reference to a Marine who served in the Vietnam War.  Of course my story is entirely fictional, so I wanted to share a first hand very real story written by a man who was there:

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USMC, 1st Radio Battalion, Vietnam Veterans

Stories

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Here are links that contain history and photographs:

VIETNAM WAR footage in our collection

V I E T N A M  W A R  S T A T I S T I C S  &  E X C L U S I V E  P H O T O S
Source: U.S. Government (VA Web Site Stats)

THE VIETNAM WAR 1964-1973 and more VIETNAM PHOTOGRAPHS

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Just as the experts use the term complicated grief I also believe there is something we could just as well name – complicated forgiveness.  Life is not often a straight forward affair.  Rarely do we have ‘enough information’ to be able to make the kinds of decisions, and then take the ‘right’ kind of action that really would have been better than what we actually DID based on what we actually knew.

Could most people do things better than they do?  How do we tolerate human frailty — in ourselves and in other people?  How do we live with grace and forgiveness?

I didn’t know what my 3rd short story was going to be about until it became clear as I was in the process of writing it.  Now I have to clean it up and finish it, and will post it as soon as I can.

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