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Originally Posted by SykkBoy
My father-in-law got the skip the jungle rot, but his insides are basically melting...he often talks of "I was killed in Vietnam, my body just isn't quite aware of it yet". My father was "lucky" in that he managed to avoid being in the affcted areas, but his tradeoff was the Tet Offensive....
My father-in-law is going through the mental degradation stages as well. It's getting harder and harder to be out in pubhlis with him and little things set him off and not in that stereotypical Crazy Vietnam Vet way either...it's getting tougher and tougher to deal with as the years go by. Even with my divorce nearly final, my inlaws are great people who will always have my respect, especially my mother-in-law who's endured dealing with this for so many years.
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Once when my husband and I went to visit my parents while they were stationed in Maryland, my mother took me aside and said "please don't let him take you to the museum. He always offers guests, but then he just stands in front of the Vietnam display in silence...then wakes up screaming in the middle of the night for a long time." Naturally, we didn't go. When my mother died, my father took a swan dive off the ledge of sanity.
PD...I know what America truly thinks of its vets...and how they dealt with Agent Orange.
