Many of the Boomers out there shared the same childhood experiences, just about every dad was a Veteran. My Dad returned from fighting Hitler with a scare he never talked a scare he never talked about and PTSD well before anyone understood what that was. Like a lot of Vets he self medicated, his medication of choice was Whiskey and beer. My Dad was a functioning alcoholic. I swore I would never become him. I did well in school and really well using the GI bill for education when I returned. But like my Dad I too had a scare that I never talk about and diagnosed combat PTSD. I did well, started my own business and for the 50th anniversary of D-Day, I invited my Mom and Dad to accompany my wife and her parents on a cruise out of London that included Irland, and a special trip to the Normandy beaches of France. When we got to Omaha, we walked down to the sea and my Dad oriented himself to the location of his unit's assignment, it was a causeway on the top of the beach embankment, about 500 yard from where he remembers coming ashore, his unit was in the second wave, a rifle company, 165 men. He stared at it for a long time, then he just opened, he remembers reaching the causeway some time after noon, it had taken his unit over 6 hours to reach the causeway, they had 16 men left. He talked like I had never heard him talk before or since. Down the road from that causeway was a little French cafe, we sat and he asked me to tell him about my longest day. He had followed my service and knew that I had been a Special Forces Medic and my Team had been over run at the battle of Lang Vei during the Tet Offensive. Starting January 31, 1968 with Heaviest combat February 6th, 7th and 8th, in the end it came down to 24 Special forces against 7000 North Vietnamese with tanks, on that last day we repelled 4 human wave attacks, I witnessed Eugene Ashley action that resulted in his being awarded the Medal of Honor. What we discovered that day in France was that we share a lot of the same demons, for many of the same reasons that we each experienced just 24 years apart.
