Home from the War

Home From The War gives a voice to Vietnam veterans. Thomas P. Evans was promoted to sergeant as a 19-year-old infantryman and put in charge of a 15-man mortar section. Just before his tour ended a mortar accident killed a Marine and dashed Evans' hopes of making the Marine Corps his career. When he returned home he wanted to put the war behind him and make something of himself. He describes the depression which first began when the My Laistory broke and eventually put him in the hospital. He explains the fear of fathering a child when he thought he might have been exposed to Agent Orange. He tells how he felt walking down the hallways of the Colt Firearms Company, knowing it produced a defective rifle that killed several Marines in his battalion. He documents his search for a wartime photo that led to a reunion with his Vietnam comrades. He describes a two decade split with a friend who opposed the war. And he writes of the letters his newspaper articles elicited from the loved ones of Marines killed years earlier. Evans does a great job of putting the reader inside the head of a Vietnam veteran. In 1967 Thomas P. Evans served in Vietnam in the 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, the "Walking Dead" battalion. He is a computer programmer who lives in Connecticut. His Articles have appeared in VIETNAM, Leatherneck, and Purple Heart magazines, and in 25 newspapers, and in WWW.WORKTOGETHER.COM/PEOPLE/EVANS.HTM