Joe joined the marines and got shipped
to the war in Nam.

He saw many horrors in those jungles,
even saw some of his marine friends die.

Jimmy Jones got shot in the face and
his brains blew out of the back
of his head.

Bart Henderson got his guts blown out
from some kind of missile direct hit.

Jake Brothers got one of his legs
shot off and kept screaming and
bled out so much that passed
out and died before the medic
could save his life.

The psychological impact of those sights
and others just as horrible, in Joe’s
words, “Fucked up my mind.”

He survived Nam somehow, not even a
scratch, but his mind was wounded from
all the carnage he saw.

When he made it home and was discharged,
he got a job at the local post office.

But he said he had trouble fitting back
into civilian life and felt like he was
going to go postal and shot up the
post office and everybody in it.

Luckily, he had the good sense to get
counseling at a local Veteran’s Center and
mellowed out enough to contain his PTSD
and function normally enough to fit into
civilian life.

Not long after thant, he met a good woman,
named Nancy, got married to a her,
and had a wonderful life.

Bob Boyd