Veterans Face Memories, Fears In Search For Marine

More indepth look at Eric Hall's story


Veterans Face Memories, Fears In Search For Marine
By DAMIEN CAVE

The New York Times

Published: April 7, 2008

The Vietnam Veterans

Charlie Shaughnessy; Thomas McCarthy, known as Wolf; Jerry Lutz, known as Animal; and Bob Constabile were strangers before Eric Hall disappeared. Each had been a Marine. Each had fought in Vietnam and struggled with the consequences.

Animal and Wolf, who still prefer their Vietnam nicknames, struggled with homelessness. Shaughnessy spent four years living without electricity in the woods of upstate New York before rejoining society. And even then, he said, he overcame the experience only with intense therapy.

"The military has an effect on your life forever," Shaughnessy said between cigarettes in his living room this month. "Forever."

By the time these men reached Florida, they were busy trying to move on. Like so many here, they had come to retire, to check out - and Iraq in particular was not a war they identified with.

The military had changed, becoming an all-volunteer force in 1974. The number of troops dying in Iraq has never reached the heights of Vietnam. And as they watched Iraq war veterans coming home to parades and public sympathy, many older veterans felt no need to link arms with younger colleagues. They watched Iraq like most Americans - as spectators.

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