When Cultures Connect

James and Norman Johnson with military and native american clothes

James Johnson served three tours in Vietnam, first as an Army helicopter gunner and then in military intelligence as a Marine. He followed in the footsteps of his sailor father, who was stationed at Pearl Harbor shortly after the bombing that drew America into World War II. But military service is not the only tie…

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The Day Before The Fall of Saigon

graphic of crying in the rain

Nguyet Ha-Le was born in Thai Binh, Vietnam, in 1953. She was born into a large family – the fifth of 10 children. Life was comfortable in North Vietnam. Her parents were teachers with generational wealth that allowed them to live in a three-story, stone house with maids for each of the children. But only…

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Healing the Invisible Wounds of Combat

Nick Sanford with his youth football players

It’s the serviceman who beats himself up about being unable to save a dying buddy. Or the truck driver who follows orders to run over children in the road, because they might be placed there to facilitate an ambush of a convoy. While it has been more than half a century since the United States…

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Four-Legged Friends Bring Aid, Comfort to Veterans

brittany with Hattie

Brittany lives from day to day with relentless anxiety, depression, nightmares, insomnia and a fear of crowds. She’s a 30-year-old U.S. Army veteran, a combat surgical nurse who did stints in South Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan while in the service from 2005 to 2013. She suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Brittany’s PTSD stems from combat…

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