The VVA Veteran

08/31/2026

Retired U.S. Navy Capt. Bernard "Bud" Cole's novel, Goin’ to ‘Nam, is a semi-autobiographical tale centering on a disgruntled Navy officer who serves on a cruiser off the coast of Vietnam, then becomes boat group commander and accompanies Marines on amphibious assaults on land where he sees the war up close and develops a bad attitude. Here's Harvey Weiner's review, just posted on Books in Review II: https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2026/08/31/goin-to-nam-by-bernard-bud-cole/

08/26/2026

Here’s Episode 50 of “Dispatches,” our video web series. Arts Editor Marc Leepson interviews Shad Meshad, the pioneering veterans mental health professional who has been a veterans therapist and advocate for more than 50 years—since soon after he returned from Vietnam where he worked as a psych officer for the troops. They’ll discuss his memorable Vietnam War experiences, his rocky homecoming, and how he became one of the first mental health professionals to study what would become known as Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. And how in 1979, he was instrumental in creating the VA’s Vet Center Program, the storefront psychological counseling centers which now operate in more than 300 locations across the country. The author of the 1982 Vietnam War memoir, "Captain for Dark Mornings," Shad Meshad received the VVA Excellence in the Sciences Award at the 2026 National Leadership Conference.

08/26/2026

In "Take My Arm, Just Save My Life," former U.S. Army 9th Infantry Division Lt. Michael Strand tells his Vietnam War story, focusing on his severe injuries after being hit by an enemy mortar, his recovery, and his rewarding post-war life. Here's Bob Wartman's review, just posted on Books in Review II. https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2026/08/26/take-my-arm-just-save-my-life-by-michael-strand/

08/24/2026

Coming up on Wednesday, August 26 at 9:00 a.m. Eastern: Episode 50 of “Dispatches,” our video web series. Arts Editor Marc Leepson interviews Shad Meshad, the pioneering veterans mental health professional who has been a veterans therapist and advocate for more than 50 years—since soon after he returned from Vietnam where he worked as a psych officer for the troops.

They’ll discuss his memorable Vietnam War experiences, his rocky homecoming, and how he became one of the first mental health professionals to study what would become known as Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. And how in 1979, he was instrumental in creating the VA’s Vet Center Program, the storefront psychological counseling centers which now operate in more than 300 locations across the country.

The author of the 1982 Vietnam War memoir, "Captain for Dark Mornings," Shad Meshad received the VVA Excellence in the Sciences Award at the 2026 National Leadership Conference.

08/15/2026

Dr. Philip Napoli, the Dean of the Brooklyn College Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, and an advisor to the VVA National Legacy Task Force, gave a rousing Keynote speech at the Opening Ceremonies of the Leadership Conference on Wednesday. Take a look at
https://youtu.be/ZRQYdAWpj7M

08/14/2026

Day 3 of the VVA National Leadership & Education Conference this morning in Jacksonville. Lots of seminars and camaraderie.

08/07/2026

"Out of Country War, Vol. 2: Hanoi’s Proxies & Soviet Intervention, Laos 1960–1963" is Albert Grandolini and E. R. Hooton’s follow-up to "Out-Country War: The Secret War Begins: Laos: 1954–1960." In it, the two veteran military historians take a concise, but detailed, look at the prelude to the American War in Vietnam in the early sixties in neighboring Laos in this large-format, heavilly illustrated book. Here's Ed Mann's review, just posted on Books in Review II:

Out of Country War, Vol. 2: Hanoi’s Proxies & Soviet Intervention, Laos 1960–1963 (Helion/Casemate, 94 pp., $29.95, paper) is the follow-up to Albert Grandolini and E. R. Hooton’s O…

07/27/2026

Chris Newlon Green served a tour of duty in Vietnam as a medic in an Army MEDCAP unit in the Mekong Delta in 1964 just before the big American buildup. He tells all in his memoir, "Letters Home: Vietnam 1964." Here's Ed Mann's review, just posted on our Books in Review II page.
https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2026/07/27/letters-home-vietnam-1964-by-chris-newlon-green/

07/17/2026

Here’s Episode 49 of “Dispatches,” our video web series. Arts Editor Marc Leepson interviews Dartmouth University historian and author Matthew Delmont about his new book, “Until the Last Gun Is Silent.” It’s an engagingly written telling of two little-known Vietnam War stories: Coretta Scott King’s largely underappreciated role in the antiwar movement, and the war and post-war experiences of Medal of Honor recipient Dwight “Skip” Johnson, a draftee from Detroit. The book also includes stories of, as Professor Delmont puts it, African American “everyday soldiers, veterans, and activists whose lives were shaped by the Vietnam War.”