I was in (South) Korea while my brother Tony was a Chu Lai (South Vietnam at the time) and my younger brother, Ted, was studying Vietnamese and to be a flying spy for the Air Force.

South Korea was going through what we who were there at the time call "The DMZ War" or "The Second Korean War." (Look for Daniel P. Bolger, "Scenes From an Unfinished War" Leavenworth Papers No. 19 -- it's available from several sources in PDF.) When we left the place we were stationed we went armed because there were people who were actually trying to kill us. Vietnam had the headlines, except for incidents like the USS Pueblo capture and the EC-121 shootdown (happened while I was there, we went to a war footing -- DEFCON 1 from DEFCON 3). Agent Orange was sprayed on the DMZ and elsewhere.

All of my mother's sons came home with PTSD and other disorders in varying degrees.

But not like a friend of mine: newly married the day he graduated from Bible College (a reputable one), he was drafted and made a "black" sniper in Vietnam. 22 kills. He was taught, "Thou shalt not kill." He crawled through areas while they were being sprayed with Agent Orange. He has a fiduciary agent (his wife) because he cannot handle finances. His PTSD and AO related problems have had him in and out of VA hospitals for years. The last I heard this really great guy was slipping away into dementia.

As my brother Tony says, "It's back pay. Nobody could have paid me enough to do what I did."

And when we returned, well, some of the experiences were quite unpleasant.