Memories would not cease to haunt Max Cleland

Max Cleland is a Vietnam veteran among many other things but it is because of his service in Vietnam that he has done the rest with his life. When you are aware of what it was like when Vietnam and older veterans came home, no one was talking about what we call PTSD now. They didn't have the support from their communities and found it hard to find each other. They didn't have the Internet or anything it has offered the newer generation of veterans. Because Vietnam veteran we willing to fight this battle, we have what is available for veterans now.

Vietnam Veterans Reunion Proves Moving
The Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Reunion in Silver Spring evokes great range of emotion
By Mark W. Sanchez
Patch.com
April 29, 2013

His scraggly grey hair curling from both his beard and head, Bruce Smith looked hesitantly up from his wheelchair.

“I’m probably going to have some nightmares after this,” Smith said.

Nearing four decades after the Vietnam War ended, the veteran spoke disgustedly about Agent Orange and its effects.

He came to The Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Reunion at the Silver Spring Civic Building Monday because employees at the Silver Spring Vet Center had urged him to discover avenues available to him to deal with health treatment.

Max Cleland—a Vietnam veteran, triple-amputee and former Georgia senator—spoke eloquently and decisively about the sacrifices each person in the roughly 35-veteran audience has made—many of whom, like Cleland, were missing limbs. He expressed how important it was for each of them to find something in life worth pursuing.

Cleland was awarded the Purple Heart, Bronze Star for meritorious service and Silver Star for gallantry in action when he arrived back from Vietnam, but he described himself as having “no job, no future, no girlfriend [and] no car.”

With one arm and no legs, Cleland questioned his life’s direction, now that he was “on this side of the wall,” referring to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in which is sketched each American death from the war.

And he was simultaneously dealing with serious effects from the war.

“If you don’t have (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), then you’re crazy,” Cleland said.

He knew that the memories would not cease to haunt him.
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