The Salvation of ‘Napalm Girl’

From The Wall Street Journal-

You may not recognize me now, but you almost certainly know who I am. My name is Kim Phuc, though you likely know me by another name. It is one I never asked for, a name I have spent a lifetime trying to escape: “Napalm Girl.”

You have probably seen my picture a thousand times. Yes, that picture. The image that made the world gasp. Some called it a turning point in the Vietnam War—a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of me in 1972, age 9, running along a puddled roadway in front of an expressionless soldier. I was photographed with arms outstretched, naked and shrieking in pain and fear, with the dark contour of a napalm cloud billowing in the distance.

My own people had dropped bombs on Route 1 in an effort to cut off the trade routes for the Viet Cong rebels. I had not been targeted. I had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

More here-

https://www.wsj.com/article_email/the-salvation-of-napalm-girl-1513899109-lMyQjAxMTE3MDIwMjYyOTI5Wj/

Episcopal priest and former Vietnam POW helps veterans

From Atlanta-

Hurtling through the dark but missile-streaked skies over Hanoi in 1972 after his B-52 bomber was shot down, Robert Certain was pretty sure he was going to die, just like three of the men in his plane had, and remembers praying for his parachute not to open rather than dying in captivity.

Then a 25-year-old Air Force navigator, the Rev. Certain is now the 63-year-old senior priest of St. Peter and St. Paul Episcopal Church in east Cobb, but war is still very much on the mind of the retired colonel.

Now, though, he thinks more about helping the military personnel returning from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Certain had flashes of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for decades, which is one reason his large church is doing all it can to help returning veterans deal with the problems that cause more suicides among military people today than ever.

The military suicide rate has been rising for five years even though the Department of Veterans Affairs offers more psychological help to vets now than in the past.

More here-

http://www.ajc.com/news/episcopal-priest-and-former-983142.html

Priest plans book about Vietnam experience

From North Carolina-

The faces drift back to Houston Matthews from across four decades.

Marines he fought beside in Vietnam are with him always, especially on Memorial Day, when he salutes fellow riflemen killed at such places as Con Thien and Khe Sanh.

It was during the 1968 Siege of Khe Sanh – one of the most controversial battles of the Vietnam War – that Matthews received the wounds that cost him an eye and a leg.

A retired Episcopal priest from Gastonia, Matthews kept the war bottled up inside for years, haunted by memories of friends who didn't come back.

About nine years ago, he first got professional help for post-traumatic stress. Recently, he started counseling soldiers back from Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, he's about to launch a project friends have been urging him to do for years: Write a book that blends his experiences in war and the ministry.

“I want to encourage any veteran who is still struggling,” said Matthews, 62. “I want to help broken people get in better shape emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. To help them get things under control.”

More here-

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/local/story/744129.html