This is coolbert: One of the negative images to come out of the Vietnam War was that of the crazed, deranged veteran, running amok, going now what would be called postal, and rampaging through a community, still thinking that he was in Vietnam. The image was that the veteran from the Vietnam conflict was especially prone to mental illness brought on by combat and the very nature of having to fight a guerilla enemy. Seeing enemies everywhere at all times had warped this man's mind and he was no longer fit to be a member of society when he became a civilian and he returned to the U.S.

Now, this image is just not correct. That is not to say that such persons existed. But rampaging ex-GI's were very few in number, and the stereotype was blown out of proportion and magnified by the media in a grotesque manner.

There were such persons that mentally were changed by the war in a negative way. There were a number of such persons. These particular individuals became very anti-social and could not cope with large groups of people. They had to become loners to maintain their sanity. And of course they did receive medications from the VA system through psychiatric counseling.

Again, you used to hear all sorts of stories about such persons, again blown out of proportions and distorted, by the media, perhaps intentionally so. One such distortion was that of the mountain-man, suvivalist ex-GI. A man who was very anti-social and was known to go off into the forest or the mountains for extended periods of time, just to recover their wits. Such persons were said to go into the forest with just the clothes on their back, and emerge six months later thirty pounds heavier and dressed in skins. The idea was that these survivalist types lived off the land using military training, killing and eating animals and dressing themselves in the skins of same. Well, this image was also just not true. It was true that a lot of ex-GI's did take to the mountains or the woods, but they were not exactly living off the land. Most of them would come into town once a month to collect a VA disability check, buy supplies from same, and then trek off into the wilderness to commune with nature, on their own. This one man was profiled on TV had a camp set up in the woods, complete with lots of plastic sheeting, cots, camp stove, oil lamps, dogs for companions with plenty of dog food. Yes, this unfortunate was living on his own in the woods, but not as a survivalist.

coolbert.