PTSD and the story behind my novella

I saw some combat during the Vietnam War. Saw some.

"Saw" is the key word. There is a big difference between witnessing combat up close and actually taking part in it.

I saw some death. I saw some destruction. And I saw several scary situations while I was in the middle of events that could have gotten me killed.

Yet, my tour of duty in the Vietnam conflict was a calm Sunday family picnic compared with what our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq have been experiencing and are still experiencing.

I came home from the Vietnam War with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It affected me strongly for many years afterward. It still affects me sometimes today. And mine was just a mild case.

With the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq still dragging on and on, we now have thousands upon thousands of veterans - men and women -- who are experiencing, or who soon will experience, PTSD and the various, unnerving ways it can affect individuals, families, co-workers and others.

There are no easy solutions or quick "cures" for PTSD. Most of those who have it now likely will need assistance of some kind, possibly for years to come. You don't just take a pill and return to "normalcy" after you've been to war.

One way I have dealt with PTSD is by writing: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, screenplays, articles, reviews, blog posts.

I recently wrote a book that, at one level, has been another way for me to confront and deal with the PTSD ghosts still floating around inside my head. It is fiction, but many parts of it are drawn from real events in my life during and after my time in the Vietnam conflict.

The book, a novella titled Jump, recently has been featured in "The Spark," the Harvard University Extension School's blog. Here is the link: http://harvardextension.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/si-dunn-story/

The posting explains some of the background behind the book's creation.

-- Si Dunn

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Almost (Poem and Photographs)

Almost

(Near 92 Champs-Élysées, Paris)

Thomas Jefferson lived here

And slept here, it is rumored,

With a slave (not commemorated).

But wait, there’s more!

Corporal Robert Birlinger died here

Just two hours before Paris’ liberation.

The fireman turned soldier

Dared to cross

Avenue des Champs-Élysées

Leading a squad to fight

Blazes and German snipers.

Always a bad combination.

He almost made it.

Shot in the leg, he

Gave up too much blood

For France,

While those who could help him

Were pinned down.

Some critics of Birlinger's small plaque

Tell a less heroic story:

A tank shell simply

Blew him apart.

But this all avoids the essential question:
Just before Corporal Birlinger died here,

Had he read the plaque above

What later would be his,
And realized that

Thomas Jefferson always

Made it across the street?

                   -- Si Dunn



From the forthcoming book of poems and photographs by Si Dunn:
The One-Trillionth Picture of the Eiffel Tower
(Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.)