MCM Books News

TEXANA READS: Vietnam veteran combines stories, art to convey horrific experience Ovidio Garcia saw the enemy up close. Two tours of Vietnam – most of the time in combat – solidified his images of war. The memories are hard-wired into his brain. They are with him for the rest of his life.

Michigan War Studies Review – book reviews, literature surveys, original essays, and commentary in the field of military studies Review by Thomas G. Palaima, The University of Texas-Austin Ovidio Garcia tells us in his introduction that, during his two tours as an airborne infantryman in Vietnam (1966-67, 1971-72), he saw only one army photographer “and he was killed on his second day of insertion into his unit” and that personal cameras were not allowed because of “intelligence factors” (x).

Memories in Green: A mind’s fifty-year journey from drafted to PTSD, Reflections from Viet Nam by Beto Conde Review by Ben Figueroa The Vietnam War was unique in that the birth of PTSD brought back by countless veterans has haunted veterans of foreign wars before and since Vietnam, but we did not know it to be a lifelong demon. In addition, Agent Orange devastated those veterans who survived the Vietnam War and came back only to be turned away and questioned by the Veteran’s Administration that the dangerous toxin used to kill the jungle brush did not affect our veterans who were also sprayed with it.   Ben Figueroa Beto Conde from San Benito, Texas, has given us a very real glimpse of what it was for a soldier fighting in the jungles of Vietnam. His book is exemplary of the many veterans who have suffered the demons of PTSD and Agent Orange. It is a vivid and truthful reminder that freedom isn’t free, our veterans who died in the war and came back to suffer a lifetime fought for o...

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Friendly fire. [/vc_column_text][vc_separator border_width=”2″ css=”.vc_custom_1549390341395{padding-top: 10px !important;padding-bottom: 10px !important;}”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] On Tuesday, February 19, Ovidio Garcia, author and Vietnam veteran, will make a presentation about his book  My War, My Art  and his war experiences to a class at the University of Texas at Austin. [/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”white” border_width=”4″][vc_text_separator title=”” color=”white” border_width=”4″][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Thomas G Palaima, Ph.D., Robert M. Armstrong Centennial Professor invited Garcia to come in and discuss his images, words, and experiences and the process of painting and writing his book with students in Palaima’s Plan II Honors Program junior seminar...