Walsh takes that one step further when Aaron risked his life saving soldiers who were not his friends. Jesus said that 'There is no greater love than one man should give his life for his friend'. God also plays an important part for so many of the survivors who eventually got their shattered lives together In one form or another. I feel that this is the first book I've read that gives the truth of the Vietnam soldier without becoming maudlin, or falsely glorying the feelings of those who served our country honorably. This story runs parallel lines for a while before closing in a five hanky junction. The men have a reunion every year but have no idea where the Medal of Honor vet is who saved their lives. In the process of interviewing vets, Dave comes across a millionaire vet who wants him to find the man who saved his life and the lives of his two friends. The one thing he especially wants to do is honor these war veterans who had returned home to hate and neglect because of the unpopular war in which they were fighting before returning home. Dave Russo is a reporter, in his mid forties, who is writing a book about Vietnam vets in honor of his father who died in Vietnam, when Dave was just a baby. He hasn't seen his grown children since they were toddlers.

Not fancy by any means, but so much better than the streets he had been living on previously. His home is the storage shed within the park. Aaron Miller is a Vietnam vet in his sixties, who works as a beloved handyman in a trailer park in Florida. The humility, faith and care that Aaron's story is told will stay with me a long, long time.ĭan Walsh has written a very meaningful book that covers a full range of emotions and choices-courage, fear, pain, despair, forgiveness, love, and redemption. Vietnam was a disgrace supposedly, so those young men who came home disfigured and disillusioned, didn't come home as heroes. Something that our young people have no concept of today. My husband and I grew up in the era of the draft and my husband joined the army at the end of the Vietnam war, when every young man was terrified of being drafted.

Having two son's who have served in Iraq, and one of them headed soon to Afghanistan, this book touched me in the deepest parts of my being. This author, who has never served in the military, has somehow been able to capture the pure essence of what it is to serve, to give up one's dignity, one's honor, everything one has, including life itself for another human being. The Vietnam war era was a blight on our country and the way the veterans who served so courageous in that unpopular conflict were treated upon their return home, well, to me it is one of the most shameful times in the history of our nation. Where do I start? Dan Walsh is an excellent writer.

The Reunion by Dan Walsh