Vietnam cover art

Vietnam

There & Back: A Combat Medic's Chronicle

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Vietnam

By: Jim "Doc" Purtell
Narrated by: Eric Martin
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About this listen

In 1967, Jim Purtell left his small Midwestern town to join the US Army. He did so at a time when the country was pro-Vietnam and serving seemed an honorable thing to do. Little did he know that the tide would turn a mere six months later as drastically as it did.

Vietnam - There & Back: A Combat Medic's Chronicle is a candid account of the time when he and several other combat vets found themselves conducting operations in the jungles of Vietnam during and after the Tet Offensive.

Purtell describes in gritty detail what it was like to live and fight with an infantry company only to return to anti-Vietnam sentiment so strong that he and his fellow veterans felt nobody cared about them or the sacrifices they made.

©2018 Jim Purtell (P)2018 Tantor
Americas Military & War War Military US Army

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Real life contemporary veterans relate to

I watched this war on TV, It fashioned my life laterand I was taught my trade by Australian veterans of the Vietnam war. Later in my career, I changed from infantry to Active Intelligence, a form of Intel gathering by many means including HumInt. We trained in various weapons and equipment and due to the nature of our military, it was necessary to have training in other fields of expertise. I chose to have training as a combat medic, which in the days of the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions was quite a load. Everything about this experience was no different to my own, from not being prepared enough to being afraid that I would be inadequate in the field. About the only two different things I have to note are, PTSD is identified when you do lose control and the over compensating public, when they learn you are a veteran... They thank you for your service, but I feel so guilty because we invaded them by default of a political whim to please the USA government. No medals are worth the lies or the innocent lives that were lost in the US quest for oil.

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Honest review of memories and events

Well this was a good recount of a combat medic and nests very neatly with infantry based books. Well Done.

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