They Were Soldiers: The Sacrifices and Contributions of Our Vietnam Veterans is Joseph Galloway and Marvin J. Wolf’s tribute to the trials of their generation. Having remained friends since they first met in Vietnam as war correspondents more than half a century ago, the two explained to the Washington Examiner how the project had been “at the front of our minds” for more than 20 years.
They set out originally to compile 50 profiles of Vietnam veterans who had gone on to establish themselves in successful careers, despite returning home to what Wolf described as “piss-poor treatment” from their country. “You can quote me on that,” Wolf said, who explained that he was horribly treated himself despite earning a Bronze Star, three Air Medals, the Purple Heart, and one of only 60 battlefield commissions of the Vietnam War.
Wolf’s co-author, Galloway, served four tours as a war correspondent in Vietnam and was the only civilian to be awarded a Bronze Star during the Vietnam War. He later spent two decades as a senior editor at U.S. News & World Report. His bestselling We Were Soldiers Once and Young, which he co-authored with Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, was adapted into a 2002 film starring Mel Gibson.
After about two years, they secured a publisher for their book commemorating 48 veterans, whom they group into artists and professionals, healers, officeholders, as well as those who devoted their lives to government service. Galloway said their work “focuses less on the war that these 48 people fought and more on the lives they have lived and the good that they have done for their communities and our country since their war.”
“It was a great privilege really to talk to all these people, to meet them on the phone,” Wolf said. “It was a privilege to tell their story the way they told it and in their words as far as possible.”
Even so, Wolf said the process was not easy. “There’s something called secondary PTSD, which is usually confined to therapists. But I found that in talking to some of these people, their stories were so horrific — at least part of them were — that I found myself dreaming about ‘being’ them, in a sense, for a few weeks. But I got over it. No alcohol.”
Wolf singled out their profile of retired U.S. Army Maj. Ted Gostas as particularly memorable for being “a sad, sad story, but also inspiring.” Captured by the North Vietnamese during the Tet Offensive in February 1968, Gostas was “held in solitary confinement for four and a half years in a room about the size of a fat man’s coffin,” where “his only friends were a praying mantis and a white rat.” Gostas eventually lost his mind as a defense mechanism against his daily tortures and interrogations. He spent many years after his release healing from his ordeal and eventually found solace in painting.
In an interview with NPR on Memorial Day, Wolf and Galloway also mentioned the story of Jeff Frederick, who lost his leg at age 19 when he tripped a booby trap in 1967. When he returned to the United States, he was given inadequate medical care and was often mistreated for his disability. “People treated us as though we were crippled and made me feel humiliated,” he recounted. “I was embarrassed in front of women.” Instead of succumbing to despair and self-pity, however, Frederick devoted his career to establishing a business that helped those who also needed prosthetic limbs.
Reflecting in the book on the unique struggles of his generation, Frederick said, “If there’s any grand distinction between us and the generation of World War II, it is that ours was a tragedy instead of a drama. The previous generation came back victorious, went to work, made a lot of money, had a life. They came out of the war to celebrate their lives, and God bless them.”
By contrast, Frederick said, “We came out of our war to see that a big mistake had been made. We came out seeing how terrible and costly and useless our war was […] Our parents’ generation should have set their minds to ending war once and for all. Where our generation has so far failed was to not take that candle and run with that light and try to make a better world. So, that’s what I’m trying to do.”
Many other poignant reflections and inspiring life stories abound in They Were Soldiers, which deserves a place on the shelf of anyone who cares about what U.S. veterans have suffered and overcome. The authors hope it will “inspire our readers young and old” to “take pride in being an American.” Explaining how only about 1 million remain of the 3 million U.S. soldiers who served in the Indochina theater of the Vietnam War, Galloway said, “It’s time this country and especially the younger generation understand … what these people have accomplished and done with their lives. They’re not the Lt. Calleys. They’re not the baby killers.”
“And we just wanted to set the record straight and throw a good salute at these men and women who served their country and haven’t really been thanked for it,” he added.
Jon Brown is the deputy breaking news editor for the Washington Examiner.
