Home Without A Flag

By George Samerjan

Home Without a Flag is a collection of poems written during the author's combat tour in Vietnam, and across the decades afterwards. The poems are of war, and of the warrior returning home.WITHIN MY SIGHTS 1970 - 1971These poems were written during the war in the village of Vo Xu, Hoai Duc District, Province of Binh Tuy, Republic of Vietnam. The author led a team of American advisors assigned to a South Vietnamese outpost. The team trained, advised, and accompanied infantry forces on combat operationsBACK IN THE WORLD 1972 - 1982"The World" was the United States. "Back In The World" was everything - dreams of things to do, girl friends, wives, families, and a return to civilian life. Getting back to The World was the thought on each soldier's mind each day he was in the jungle. Each day was one more day notched off a "short timer's" calendar, and one day closer to going home. "The World" loomed large, perhaps too large, in the dreams of what soldiers would find when they returned home.PHANTOMS AND FRIENDS 1982 - 1986As time passed, memories became less recurring but no less intense. In some ways, memories merged and the less poignant details became lost, allowing the strength of theremaining memories to grow. They, indeed, became an entity unto themselves that each combat veteran carries with him in his own way. On occasion these memories were shared. But, they were usually shared only with another who carried the same baggage. Somehow, there was a cheapening of the value of the memories if one attempted to share them with someone who hadn't been there. In the end, the baggage of memories was a knowledge that none of us were fully able to understand, anymore than we are willing to let them go.YOU NEVER TELL THE STORY ANYMORE 1987 - 1992Twenty five years later the demon dreams have been trundled up, packed off, and consigned to locked trunks in the attic. Occasionally, they escape, but the legacy of the war is now not so much the memory as the act, and a subsequent life different than others in my generation who had not gone as we had.UNEASY PEACE 1992 - 2013Call it an armistice. It's certainly not a victory. That's too clean and crisp a definition. But all these years later there is an uneasy peace between the past and the present. There are still occasional triggers, but they are few in number. I have an acceptance now to what was and to what will reside in my memory and soul forever.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0692206272
• ISBN13: 9780692206270
• Release Date: May 2014
• Publisher: North Chatham Company, Ltd.
• Length: 230 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.6" x 6.0"