Walking Wounded — Dennis Latham

This story excerpt from the novel Michael In Hell is a character study of Michael Tucker, a Marine Vietnam veteran serial killer operating out of Cincinnati and southwest Indiana in the year 2005. Michael goes to the VA Hospital to see the head psychiatrist for his combat PTSD. While waiting for his appointment, a sound triggers a combat memory and Tucker relives an attack in the Street Without Joy area of South Vietnam. Written when 2005 was still in his distant future, the author shows how the VA used to treat Vietnam veterans with PTSD before the new modern wars changed the way the government looks at PTSD and the warrior. The actual ambush-attack in the story did occur in late 1967 and resulted in 4 Marine KIA and 21 wounded.