My just released book

[headmount]

Man...I haven't even gotten to the adventure part yet and I'm hooked. Great reading, I like Mikey and Billy already.

My friends call me Brother Bill.  Thanks Stoney.  Probably some stuff that is similar to your brother experience.

[Southbay]

Just finished it.  Wow, what a great read.  Takes alot of courage to go through all that again, not to mention putting it out there.  Constantly walking on egg shells around a Dad with PTSD sure brings up a lot for me.  Awesome book.

[WingSuit]

Been reading some every day and at where you are just getting to Maui. This is where I think it starts getting to where I have been curious about and I can honestly say, with my mouth hanging open........WOW!. How do I say this.........good for you and congratulations on telling so much of the story to lead up to.....well, I guess that's the story. The big stuff for sure but also all the little things.....the dentist,........
Yes, the different voices and pov is a good way to put things.
Your take on the demeanor, (and why they were there) of the kids during the summer of love in The City, (wow, you were there too) is something in itself too. Now I wonder if without WW2 if that whole.........hippie thing would have happened like it did. All the kids of all the people that were in the war............
I was curious so went back to the Amazon site to see some reviews.....blonde kid from Aspen I think.....and you is moving up the charts too.
I would love a hard copy too.
Nice writing and telling of a story.

Well that blond kid is 68 now and lives on Kauai.  And you have the same take as me about WWII.  That "Greatest Generation came out repressed, alcoholic and smoking cigs like crazy.  That's what we grew up with.  And it spun us out into an orbit that included surfing some of the best waves in the world by ourselves.  If we'd grown up with a Dad who was a grocer at the A&P we would have probably stayed in one place and toed the line.  You never know but when a whole generation rebels the way the hippies did, you know something was on the table.  Thanks for reading.

Hmm...   really?  that whole generation wasn't a bunch of hippies.  My dad saw some heavy combat in WW2 (he was the only survivor of his B-17).  he wasn't an alcoholic.  and he didn't smoke.  a few of those guys did pretty well.  like Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy to name two.  while all the hippies were out smoking pot and not working, some of us spent decades in the military and/or the intelligence service, keeping you safe.  as my sons do.  in my opinion, the "Greatest Generation" (your quotes) was in fact the greatest.  unless you think hundreds of thousands of American dying to eradicate Nazism, Fascism, and Imperial Japanese aggression is of no consequence.           

[spookini]

Wing, without picking up the book yet, I think the premise is that the Greatest Generation came home scarred, and it impacted their kids -- who then rebelled and became hippies.   .  Coping mechanism.

[WingSuit]

yes I get that. My point is the percentage of people that became hippies (good thing for the USA) was pretty low, compared to the children who got into the workforce, didn't use drugs, and made the US a better place.  I grew up on a military base.  For every hippie my town produced, I can name 100 military officers, doctors, teachers, police officers, etc.

[stoneaxe]

I think your experience growing up on military bases and in military towns likely skews the results a bit wing. growing up in Boston (also skewed but the other way) the percentage of hippies was pretty high....as were the hippies. That said not everyone became hippies, there are lots of routes to rebellion against authority. I can certainly see how rebellion against a Dad like Bill's could lead to that route though.

My wife's dad was somewhat like Bill's, no question related to what is now known as PTSD (he used to wake up screaming in the middle of the night well into the 70's). Alcoholic, his kids disliked him because he was the disiplinarian, wife divorced him finally in the 80's. It wasn't until my wife was an adult and had reconciled and even gotten close to her Dad that I came to know him and understand what an extraordinary guy he was. He was still stuck in his ways...except he quit drinking and he fortunately mellowed with age and was a pretty good granddad and great grandad. Of course that a LOT easier than being a Dad most of the time.

Reading this makes me count my blessings. If anything my Dad was too easy on us, or at least me. I can't even remember him yelling at me never mind hitting me and always supportive of my efforts......and some of the things I did when I was young make Mikey look saint like. My dad was in the military too during WWII. Always told me that he fought in the battle of Niantic, CT....didn't realize he was borrowing Jimmy Stewarts line until I was around 10. The only action he saw was picking up drunks in bars...he was an MP at the base. I wonder how much real exposure to war might have changed the man I knew.  I miss him everyday and measure myself against him often. Would I feel the same if the horrors of war had changed him.

[headmount]

Been reading some every day and at where you are just getting to Maui. This is where I think it starts getting to where I have been curious about and I can honestly say, with my mouth hanging open........WOW!. How do I say this.........good for you and congratulations on telling so much of the story to lead up to.....well, I guess that's the story. The big stuff for sure but also all the little things.....the dentist,........
Yes, the different voices and pov is a good way to put things.
Your take on the demeanor, (and why they were there) of the kids during the summer of love in The City, (wow, you were there too) is something in itself too. Now I wonder if without WW2 if that whole.........hippie thing would have happened like it did. All the kids of all the people that were in the war............
I was curious so went back to the Amazon site to see some reviews.....blonde kid from Aspen I think.....and you is moving up the charts too.
I would love a hard copy too.
Nice writing and telling of a story.

Well that blond kid is 68 now and lives on Kauai.  And you have the same take as me about WWII.  That "Greatest Generation came out repressed, alcoholic and smoking cigs like crazy.  That's what we grew up with.  And it spun us out into an orbit that included surfing some of the best waves in the world by ourselves.  If we'd grown up with a Dad who was a grocer at the A&P we would have probably stayed in one place and toed the line.  You never know but when a whole generation rebels the way the hippies did, you know something was on the table.  Thanks for reading.

Hmm...   really?  that whole generation wasn't a bunch of hippies.  My dad saw some heavy combat in WW2 (he was the only survivor of his B-17).  he wasn't an alcoholic.  and he didn't smoke.  a few of those guys did pretty well.  like Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy to name two.  while all the hippies were out smoking pot and not working, some of us spent decades in the military and/or the intelligence service, keeping you safe.  as my sons do.  in my opinion, the "Greatest Generation" (your quotes) was in fact the greatest.  unless you think hundreds of thousands of American dying to eradicate Nazism, Fascism, and Imperial Japanese aggression is of no consequence.         

Yes, you're correct.  All the post WWII vets weren't alcoholics and all, in my age group, weren't smoking pot. But those were generational habits  that were significant enough to be noticed as a whole.   For instance in the realm of being able to return from combat and resettle into civilian life, the divorce rate in post WWII was twice what  it was before.  My mention of alcohol and cigarettes were to show that many of these men were trying to cope.

Please don't get me wrong.  I came from a long family background of military service and totally appreciate all the sacrifices made during any war.  They were of consequence.  The point I attempted to make (and was obviously misunderstood) was that the consequence of one facet of that sacrifice was that many of these vets came home with the deeply embedded memories along with an inability to cope with the lack of order in civilian life. 

You were fortunate that your Dad was emotionally strong enough to put the war behind him raise you in a way that worked out so well.  But there were and still are many service people that have brought these experiences home and that battle can erupt into family dynamics.   My experience is the story in the book I wrote.  Growing up in Naval Air Stations around the country I know my experience wasn't unique.  But what was different between now and then was that war trauma or PTSD wasn't on the cultural radar for kids growing up as baby boomers.   My pals and I saw our Dads as heroes and had no idea why they were the way the were with us.

BTW both Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy were drinkers.  While Ike was stationed at Fort Meade with another military legend, George Patton, the men found creative ways to get around that pesky Prohibition. Patton made some home-brews that may or may not have exploded, while the future leader of our country mixed grain alcohol in a bathtub into bootleg gin.  Kennedy was famous martinis and flirting with stewardesses on his flights.  Coping is a very real mechanism for surviving emotionally in stressed circumstances but there is fallout.  The fact that you and your Dad have avoided all those vices is exceptional.  I tip my hat to you.

[headmount]

My brother graduated from Coronado High School in 1964. In the "in Memory of " part of their reunion in 2004 I read a telling stat.  The biggest number of those gone were from drugs, alcohol, and suicide.  It was one of the instigations for me to write my book.  When I saw that suicides were greater than battle casualties in Afghanistan I thought that his multi generational issue was a worthy subject and hopefully can create some understanding.

[stoneaxe]

No smoke here brother Bill.. ...your book has captured me like few ever have. My heart is aching for you and your brother as kids. This had to be amazingly difficult to write so honestly. You should be proud of what you produced. I can see why you and Mimi spent hours crying and laughing. I still haven't gotten to the adventure yet and I can already see movie rights being sought. An important story, well told.

[headmount]

yes I get that. My point is the percentage of people that became hippies (good thing for the USA) was pretty low, compared to the children who got into the workforce, didn't use drugs, and made the US a better place.  I grew up on a military base.  For every hippie my town produced, I can name 100 military officers, doctors, teachers, police officers, etc.

Hippies is a rather vague term and I knew many that could and were categorized as such yet did work as doctors, especially as teachers and many other occupations.  Not so much as police officers.  But while probably none were military officers, I knew many enlisted personnel who served in Vietnam, surfers drafted before the protest movement was in full swing, pre 1967.  The ones I knew, started various forms of coping while in Vietnam.  But my mistake for using such a vague term.  In a real discussion specifics should be accentuated.

[pdxmike]

People sometimes have a hard time seeing the bad in good people, and vice versa, let alone talking about it.   That's something I liked about the book. 

And something doesn't need to be true for a very large portion of a population or generation for it to become an important or even defining feature--true whether you're talking about hippies, unemployment or anything. 

Mentioning Kennedy, Patton, and Eisenhower is a reminder that the same thing headmount writes about with returning war heroes happens in other realms (business, politics...).  Some of the greatest in those fields are not great parents.  That doesn't lessen their greatness, it just shows another dimension. Characteristics that make someone great in their field can make them great parents, or horrible ones. 

The thing I thought was insightful was (at least as I interpreted it) that the 60s were a result of things that happened decades before, when the soldiers who came home later as heroes left their homes to join the military.  Even if only a few percent of returning heroes came home with problems, that's enough to impact the next generation.  And the 50s were pretty deaf to psychological problems, anyway.  The solution seemed to be to drink, smoke and suck it up.  The world at that point just didn't understand things like PTSD, let alone know what to do about it.

One lesson I got was that whether it's an individual or thousands of people, if they can benefit from some attention, therapy or just sympathy, they need to get it, or their problems will be passed on in some new form to their children. 

[WingSuit]

My brother graduated from Coronado High School in 1964. In the "in Memory of " part of their reunion in 2004 I read a telling stat.  The biggest number of those gone were from drugs, alcohol, and suicide.  It was one of the instigations for me to write my book.  When I saw that suicides were greater than battle casualties in Afghanistan I thought that his multi generational issue was a worthy subject and hopefully can create some understanding.

In no year of the Afghanistan war were suicides in theater greater than KIAs.  Not even close.  from the inception of the war thru 2008 there were 37 suicides In country.  if you take all suicides military -wide of the 1.3 million serving (about 300 suicides last year) they do exceed the 55 US battle deaths in afghanistan In 2014. These 300 include many people who never deployed. i will buy and read your book, but I just have this thing for factually accurate writing, even on forums.  Your statement tries to convey that soldiers were killing themselves in afghanistan faster than the enemy was. 

[headmount]

The 2014 stat was what I heard but I can dig what you're saying.  My point wasn't to convey that one was greater than another but just that the number was substantial.   Anyone who has dealt with suicidal issues is radically affected by it.  300 in a year is startling.

[pdxmike]

Here's a bunch of stats.  I'm sure there are conflicting ones out there, and don't know how reliable these ones are, but I'd guess even conservative figures are going to show that there are signifficant problems:
http://www.pbs.org/coming-back-with-wes-moore/about/facts/

[headmount]

Also in this day when people are so gung ho with talk about supporting the troops there is surprisingly little on the table in the way of actions to do so.  Not having a draft separates the majority of the country's population from what it really means to fight a war.  But a draft would concentrate more political focus on why and how we use troops.  As it is, since Vietnam, people can accept war without too much emotional attachment to its consequences... except for the ones and their families doing the fighting.