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I know about the nightmares because all these years later my husband is having them! He has spent a productive and successful life since Vietnam, much of it because he was able to put the horror of it all on the back burner. But burn it did, and over the past 10 years the nightmares persist. The heat of vietnam, the smells of vietnam, the wet boots that never dried out, the planes overhead and the cluster bombs and ambushes. It's all still there just as it is for my uncle who was at Normandy on D-Day.

People run and hide when it is their time to come to the aid of their country, but they sure know how to flap their lips when given the opportunity to criticize something they can not ever possibly understand. My dad is gone now too,BigBlueJon, but I remember all of his stories as well. :) I am a proud American but my pride comes from having known the heros of our time who gave and gave and gave.

Blabber mouth CJ needs to get a life.

Remember my dear Freeper that the most decorated soldier from WWII Audie Murphy suffered from terrible nightmares about the action he saw in WWII. Yet you don't see anything mentioned about that. It is a big secret that folks never mentioned much about their nightmares until it started being talked about after Vietnam. The only time I ever saw anything mentioned was a magazine article after Audie had died in a plane crash. The article quoted his ex-wife re: his terrible nightmares.

Thanks. Not that my dad's any different than any other vet. It's just that there's a big diffence between mental illness and emotional stress. If you're told enough that you're nothing but garbage, sometimes you feel like garbage. This may not be Robert Thomas Northcut's problem, but it may be a factor for him being on the street. A lot of vets can turn their lives around quickly. Other's need more time. Maybe if this guy is told that he's a hero from different people, he'll feel like more of a hero. Some people don't understand that and just call them mental.