Never too late to heal hidden war wounds

Pee Dee area Vietnam veterans seek treatment for PTSD 40 years later
Never too late to heal hidden war wounds
By: ELLEN MEDER
SCNow
Published: July 07, 2012

It has been 42 years since retired Army 1st Sgt. Cecil Stack completed two tours of duty in Vietnam. He now lives a laid-back life with his wife, Toni, in Lake City. Most days are filled with fishing and church, but from time to time certain memories weigh on his mind.

One particular story centers around a young GI from Texas whose helicopter that went into a hot LZ (a landing zone surrounded by Vietcong shooting at American troops) took a lot of rounds and flipped over.

The young man, a good friend whose last name was Williams, had half of his body caught under the burning aircraft and while Cecil and fellow soldiers worked to get him out he asked them to just shoot him and then the helicopter exploded.

“I just remember that in particular, real close, and it bothered me a long time,” Cecil says quietly. It’s a story he first recounted only two years ago.

But overall he doesn’t talk about his time deployed. In fact his family said he’s not a very talkative person at all.

Now, at 77, he’s beginning to learn how to talk about his feelings, memories and how they’ve affected him and his family.
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