A Carefree young man vs. the reality in pictures--1968

[pinboy3niner]

42. What your friend is doing with the workshops is fantastic!

I had a friend, Rod, whose VA shrink encouraged him to write down his experiences, so he did.

And he kept writing, sitting in the coffee bar at Kramerbooks in D.C. The owner of the bookstore took an interest, and published my friend's work in a series of softcover pamphlets--before hooking him up with Random House.

RH published a hardcover edition of Rod's Vietnam memoir, 'Veteran's Day.'

We lost Rod to a hereditary lung condition about 8 years after he got the lung transplant that kept him going for that long. During that time, I used to drive from VA and pick Rod up in MD to take him to his appointments back at the hospital in VA.

Rod had served in VN as a paratrooper medic in the 1st Cav--and thanks to the encuragement he had, he got to tell his story--about his experience in combat in Vietnam, and afterward, working in Vietnam Veterans Against the War in D.C.

The last time I visited there, Kramerbooks still had a brass plaque marking Rod's booth in their coffee bar.

R.I.P., Rod