| Lessons of War a play that teaches the meaning of peace |
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When Fred left the battlefield of Vietnam in November of
1968 after eleven months of brutal infantry combat in the
jungle, like many other soldiers who saw action, he
unknowingly carried with him the “Bloodless Wound” or
PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). When he
returned to civilian life, he got married and “left what
happened in the field in the field” in accordance with a time-
honored, but informal armed forces code of silence and
never spoke of it to anyone for eighteen years. He said
when describing that era in his life, “I couldn’t even utter
the word Vietnam.” But as fate would have it, the Moving
Wall Memorial came to Chicago in 1986 where he was
living and working in the family business. Fred happened
to be out where the wall was that day and when he saw it,
the mental dam he had built to keep out the memories of
the war broke. Seeing the wall and the names, the names
of people he had known and cared about, triggered an
uncontrollable release of the memories he had been trying
hard to forget for almost two decades. The vision was so
strong that it grabbed hold of his imagination, and he saw
bodies pouring out of the wall where the names once
were.
This experience started a series of flashbacks common to
many veterans who saw infantry combat, and for many of
them it has nearly unhinged their minds, causing great
damage to their lives. Fred dealt with his newly discovered
PTSD and its accompanying visions and flashbacks by
“going on a mission” to tell the truth about Vietnam to the
next generation so all of that horror and loss would not be
in vain. This led him to talk about his memories as a way of
dealing with them, and since there were few around him
who could understand what he was trying to say, he turned
first to writing as a way of self-therapeutically talking about
what happened.
1968 after eleven months of brutal infantry combat in the
jungle, like many other soldiers who saw action, he
unknowingly carried with him the “Bloodless Wound” or
PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). When he
returned to civilian life, he got married and “left what
happened in the field in the field” in accordance with a time-
honored, but informal armed forces code of silence and
never spoke of it to anyone for eighteen years. He said
when describing that era in his life, “I couldn’t even utter
the word Vietnam.” But as fate would have it, the Moving
Wall Memorial came to Chicago in 1986 where he was
living and working in the family business. Fred happened
to be out where the wall was that day and when he saw it,
the mental dam he had built to keep out the memories of
the war broke. Seeing the wall and the names, the names
of people he had known and cared about, triggered an
uncontrollable release of the memories he had been trying
hard to forget for almost two decades. The vision was so
strong that it grabbed hold of his imagination, and he saw
bodies pouring out of the wall where the names once
were.
This experience started a series of flashbacks common to
many veterans who saw infantry combat, and for many of
them it has nearly unhinged their minds, causing great
damage to their lives. Fred dealt with his newly discovered
PTSD and its accompanying visions and flashbacks by
“going on a mission” to tell the truth about Vietnam to the
next generation so all of that horror and loss would not be
in vain. This led him to talk about his memories as a way of
dealing with them, and since there were few around him
who could understand what he was trying to say, he turned
first to writing as a way of self-therapeutically talking about
what happened.
they contain characters like the American Civil War
General John Hunt Morgan who commanded the Rebel
Raiders and who was killed during the war over 100
years earlier.
This makes sense if the reader approaches this story as
a psychological journey in which Fred is navigating
through a dream reality containing a series of terrible
memories while trying to make sense of it all and keep his
grip on his own sanity and humanity.
Fred can separately identify several aspects of his
personality in Wall of Blood as separate people who
guide him through his flashbacks. There is a dark,
savage Gunfighter Brown who knows how to survive in
jungle combat and whose ruthless tactics and primal
instincts made it possible for Fred to physically survive
the constantly deadly combat conditions in the jungles of
Vietnam. There is also a childhood hero of Fred’s or, as
he saw it, an ideal soldier, in the form of General John
Hunt Morgan who is a model for chivalry, morality, and
bravery even though he knows he is fighting for a lost
cause. And finally there is Fred himself, reliving his
memories not as the savage Gunfighter Brown but as the
very human Fred, who is now a husband, father and
businessman coming to grips with the senseless violence
and tragic waste of human life he saw every day for
almost a year when he was still a teenager. If the book
is read in this light, it makes a great deal of sense and
the reader often finds himself or herself touched by the
poignant tragedy of Vietnam while cheering on Fred who
is search of himself and for meaning in the depths of
Vietnam. The reader must be prepared for the raw truth
when reading Vietnam’s Wall of Blood. No punches are
pulled and none of the often vulgar reality is censored
from the pages of this book, but it is also this same
refreshing and unabashed honesty that endears Fred to
the reader in this groundbreaking glimpse of history
through the lense of PTSD.
Scott L. Johnson M.A., Honors U.S. History
Teacher, Marshalltown H.S., Marshalltown, IA
General John Hunt Morgan who commanded the Rebel
Raiders and who was killed during the war over 100
years earlier.
This makes sense if the reader approaches this story as
a psychological journey in which Fred is navigating
through a dream reality containing a series of terrible
memories while trying to make sense of it all and keep his
grip on his own sanity and humanity.
Fred can separately identify several aspects of his
personality in Wall of Blood as separate people who
guide him through his flashbacks. There is a dark,
savage Gunfighter Brown who knows how to survive in
jungle combat and whose ruthless tactics and primal
instincts made it possible for Fred to physically survive
the constantly deadly combat conditions in the jungles of
Vietnam. There is also a childhood hero of Fred’s or, as
he saw it, an ideal soldier, in the form of General John
Hunt Morgan who is a model for chivalry, morality, and
bravery even though he knows he is fighting for a lost
cause. And finally there is Fred himself, reliving his
memories not as the savage Gunfighter Brown but as the
very human Fred, who is now a husband, father and
businessman coming to grips with the senseless violence
and tragic waste of human life he saw every day for
almost a year when he was still a teenager. If the book
is read in this light, it makes a great deal of sense and
the reader often finds himself or herself touched by the
poignant tragedy of Vietnam while cheering on Fred who
is search of himself and for meaning in the depths of
Vietnam. The reader must be prepared for the raw truth
when reading Vietnam’s Wall of Blood. No punches are
pulled and none of the often vulgar reality is censored
from the pages of this book, but it is also this same
refreshing and unabashed honesty that endears Fred to
the reader in this groundbreaking glimpse of history
through the lense of PTSD.
Scott L. Johnson M.A., Honors U.S. History
Teacher, Marshalltown H.S., Marshalltown, IA
Understanding Fred Leo Brown’s
book, Vietnam’s Wall of Blood, is
not as easy as opening to the first
page and reading chapter one. To
truly understand the work, one must
understand a little about Fred Leo
himself. Vietnam’s Wall of Blood,
while seemingly commonplace at
first quickly takes strange, almost
fictional seeming, twists and turns
and is truly be understood as a
psychological journey, a series of
flashbacks, that are anchored to the
physical world of time and space
only by names on the wall.
book, Vietnam’s Wall of Blood, is
not as easy as opening to the first
page and reading chapter one. To
truly understand the work, one must
understand a little about Fred Leo
himself. Vietnam’s Wall of Blood,
while seemingly commonplace at
first quickly takes strange, almost
fictional seeming, twists and turns
and is truly be understood as a
psychological journey, a series of
flashbacks, that are anchored to the
physical world of time and space
only by names on the wall.
| Introduction: |
Vietnam's Wall of Blood is his first attempt to
do this in book form, and as a result it reads
more as a series of loosely connected
flashbacks than as a concrete historical
account. These flashbacks have a surreal,
dreamlike quality to them, and
do this in book form, and as a result it reads
more as a series of loosely connected
flashbacks than as a concrete historical
account. These flashbacks have a surreal,
dreamlike quality to them, and
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