Introduction: At a respectable distance, Vietnam War veteran Sergeant Brown thinks “Looks like the same old crap to me. Different packaging is all.” For decades he has avoided other veterans, loathing them for denying him his twelve medals including the nation’s highest, the Congressional Medal of Honor. Now, the unsung hero who might actually be one of the bravest soldier of the Vietnam War, finds himself surrounded those very betrayers. “I’m outta here.”
But before that happens, the door to his wartime memories bursts open to let the white rollingSouth ChinaSea fog flow through. And out of the thickness walks Civil War General John Hunt Morgan who warns, “Gunfighter, the 
demons and phantoms of your past are headed your way.” Brown watches as each inscribed name on The Wall all transforms itself into a body. Over 100 of his KIA buddies tumble forth to relive their last horror-filled moments just before death. Hit by a machine-gun fire blast of flashbacks, Brown finds himself back in the rice fields, graveyards and jungles and mountains ofVietnam. Back
k where blood drenches the ground from booby traps, grenades, bullets, mortars and artillery, napalm and bombs. He will fight his war all over again. This time he may not make it back from “the ‘Nam.” Includes the original 800 words/phrases “Grunt” Vietnam War Dictionary
Preface: Vietnam’s Wall of Blood, while seemingly commonplace at first glance, quickly becomes a deep rooted psychological journey, anchored to the physical world of time and space only by the names on The Wall. To truly understand the work, one must understand a little aboutVietnam veteran Fred Leo Brown.
Sergeant Brown left the battlefield of Vietnamin November of 1968 hospital bound on a stretcher after eleven months of brutal infantry jungle. Like many who saw combat, he unknowingly carried with him the Bloodless Wound or PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). He returned to civilian life, joined the work force and got married. “What happens in the bush stays in the bush,” he would explain, in accordance with a time-honored armed forces code of silence. “I found I couldn’t even utter the word Vietnam.” But as fate would have it, the Welcome Home Parade and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Moving Wall would come to Chicago in 1986 a short distance from his home. Out of duty, Fred visited The Wall. On seeing the over 58,000 names inscribed on the black slabs, it triggered an uncontrollable release of the memories he had been surpassed for almost two decades. The visions were so powerful that they hijacked his imagination. To him it felt like he was watching the bodies of his one-hundred buddies pouring out of the wall where the names once were. As a simple explanation, he was experiencing a series of flashbacks that for many would unhinge their minds, causing dire ramification in their public and private lives.
Brown dealt with his newly discovered PTSD and its accompanying visions and flashbacks by first writing poetry. This form of self-therapy seemed to help. So he continued by performing his works in front of an audience and writing stories about his experiences. As a result, the book reads more as a series of loosely connected flashbacks more than as a concrete historical account. These flashbacks makes sense if the reader approaches this story as a psychological journey in which Fred is navigating through a dreamlike reality which contains a series of terrible memories while trying to keep a grip on his own sanity and humanity.
To help guide the reader, Brown splits his personality into four very distinct individuals. First there is the naive eighteen-year old soldier trying to make sense of it all. Then there is the dark, savage Gunfighter who knows how to survive in jungle combat and whose ruthless tactics and primal instincts make it possible for Brown to endure. Thirdly there is Brown’s adolescent war hero, American Civil War General John Hunt Morgan, who was killed over 100 years earlier. General Morgan serves as a model for chivalry, morality, and bravery against all odds. And finally there is Brown himself, reliving his memories presently as a husband, father and businessman.
If the book is read in this light, it makes a great deal of sense and the reader often find themselves touched by the poignant tragedy of the Vietnam War while cheering on Brown who is in search of himself and for meaning in the bowels of the Vietnam War.
The reader must be prepared for the raw truth when reading Vietnam’s Wall of Blood. No punches are pulled and none of the often vulgar reality is censored from the pages of this book. But it is also this same refreshing and unabashed honesty that endears Brown to the reader in this groundbreaking glimpse of history through the lens of PTSD. – Scott L. Johnson, Ph.D. Professor of History
Reviews:
“In poetry and prose you breathe life into the (American Civil War) movement and Confederate General John Hunt Morgan rides again!” – JAMES A. RAMAGE, Professor of History, Kentucky University
“This book should be of great healing value to all veterans suffering from PTSD as well as helping the non-afflicted to better understand the trauma and pain associated with such an affliction.” – COL. HAROLD A. FRITZ, Medal of Honor Recipient.
“Powerful combat vignettes and outstanding poems . . . .” – Larry R. JOHANNESSEN, PhD. of English
“Like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall (in Washington, D.C.), the book is a heart breaker. – TIM PAGE, Legendary Vietnam War photographer
“Couldn’t put it down.” – HORST FAAS, Pulitzer Prize winner, former Saigon AP Bureau Chief
“This book is a tribute to all who served in the Vietnam War. – MICHAEL “DOC” BROOKS, 173rd. Airborne Association
“I read your book in a single night. I was so intrigued by the way you wrote that I feel I have a much better understanding of what occurred. I was awestruck. – KRISTINE R. LEE, High School student
“This book teaches us lessons of war. That war not only affects the combatants but their loved ones too. We all pay a dear price in times of war. – LOUISE STONE, wife of Legendary MIA photographer Dana Stone
“He has the sheer innate ability to bring across the times and places of an era in such an uncompromising fashion. I cried from cover to cover. – Professor ROXANNA (Brown) NGERNTONGDEE, Vietnam War journalist
“I just can’t stop readingVietnam’s Wall of Blood! I actually feel I am with you in fighting every battle, walking every mile, and crying over every friend lost.” – BRAIN MOEBS,U.S.MarineVietnam
“Vietnam’s Wall of Blood is in itself a reminder that freedom comes with a price. I wish there were more veterans willing to tell about their experiences. – TOM LUBERDA, Pres. Lansing Veterans Memorial
“What a book. You really captured the heart of the war.” – DAVID KENNERLY, Pulitzer Prize winner, TIME photographer
“One suspects that if President Clinton readVietnam’s Wall of Blood, he might better understand the refusal by many Americans to put aside the question of a politician’s military service during the Vietnam War. – JOHN CLARK PRATT, Author
“Every American should readVietnam’s Wall of Blood, and experience not the will of generals, nor the wish of politicians, but the feeling of the average soldier. Mr. Brown is truly a champion of all fighting men when he writes. This book should be required reading for everyone from the school children to the president. – JOHN L. MARCHELLO, President Danmar Productions
