YOU ARE NEVER ALONE

A story to remind survivors everywhere that they are never truly alone.

I never planned on becoming an author. It started with a few notes about the nightmares my VA counselor had asked me to write down.

Later, while on vacation in Arizona, I met Tom, a fellow Vietnam veteran. He had written a book and encouraged me to keep writing, suggesting that it might help me process my own trauma. As those rough notes slowly turned into sentences and paragraphs, a book began to take shape.

Once I immersed myself in the stories, the memories flooded the pages.

There were times when I stopped and asked myself why I was doing this. Reliving the trauma brought back the nightmares, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to face them again. But after talking with my counselor and other veterans, I realized I needed to continue.

I knew writing could help me, but more importantly, it could help other veterans understand that we all need to face our memories—or our “demons,” as I called them.

My writing process had no clear order at first. I might be writing about one event when another memory would surface in the middle of a sentence. It took me a couple of years just to get all my thoughts down on paper.

When it was time to organize everything, my friend Zoe heard about my project and volunteered to help shape the pieces into a cohesive story. The process was incredibly difficult and deeply emotional. I had to revisit painful moments again and again to get them right. Zoe kept encouraging me to continue until every event had been captured in detail.

The story spans the journey from the day I was drafted to the painful day I came home, only to be met by demonstrators throwing eggs and calling us “baby killers.”

But the journey didn’t stop there. In September 2015, I had the privilege of attending a retreat sponsored by the Yellow Ribbon Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping veterans readjust to civilian life. Native Americans from the Blackfeet Reservation led the retreat.

For the first time, we were truly treated like warriors. We shared our stories, met with a medicine man, and participated in a traditional sweat lodge as part of an experience intended to help us heal from the wounds of battle. That powerful, restorative experience became the final chapter of my book.

I cannot speak for all veterans, because I know everyone experiences war in their own way. But once I finally put this journey on paper, my true purpose became clear: I wanted to share what I had learned while living with PTSD.

I hope this book inspires other survivors to share their stories and find their own ways to navigate the tragedies of war. I believe that, one day, we can all find the peace we seek.