|
Veteran Support Network Member John Tompkins
John Tompkins |
Vietnam Veteran 1965-67 Door Gunner 119th Assault Helicopter Company,
Camp Holloway, Pleiku, Vietnam.
I now live in Madison, MO. I served seven years in the US Army, including 18
months in Vietnam as a door gunner. I was decorated with over twenty five Air Medals
and one with the V device for valor. My homecoming was so puzzling and heart
wrenching, when the processing personnel in San Francisco told us to get out of our
uniforms and go home quietly. How could America have done that to me? My father told
me I was like a caged Lion. I hurt my new wife and began drinking heavily. The
continual welling up of Vietnam's consequences were a constant disruption to my personal
and professional life as I grew older. |
|
Photo by
William Dean |
Now some 32 years later, with two failed marriages, two bankruptcies,
bouts with drugs and booze, my body and soul have taken their toll. Professionally I
have persevered in the martial arts and have become a Master Instructor in an
International organization. However, that career will not tell you about my
difficulties: concentrating, continued dreams of combat, flashbacks, extreme emotional
crying, and jumpiness. Also my discomfort in crowds, my edginess when out in
public, my inability to work for someone else, and the trauma I am still putting my family
through, even though I love them dearly. It is from being in a PTSD group, that I
was finally able to see how other vets were just like me and I was not
abnormal. I know the pain of trying to readjust to the world we returned to.
Now I want to reach out to my brothers in combat, and share what I have gained from my own
journey through hell and back. Now that I have found God in my life and have found
ways to deal with PTSD - I know that I can help others as well. Who else can better
know how you feel, then someone like me, who has been there where you might be right now. |
|
