Compassionate Warrior, Yoga For Combat Veterans

01/04/2026

Movies and social media rarely provide appropriate coverage and information on the combat medic’s job. They are always in the background but there hasnt been a movie about the representative experiences of 3 to 4 combat medics.

Primer:
In essence, in combat in Vietnam we were the first responders during active battles or firefights against as well-trained NVA and national Viet Cong soldiers. -It wasn’t a gimme.

Because we were the only ones exposing ourselves as we ran to stabilize and save wounded soldiers -while riflemen were behind cover, we made ideal targets to enemy snipers. While medics treated our wounded we put our 16s down to focus on the appropriate protocol for the injury and became defenseles. Our riflemen cohorts covered us. Our job was extremely dangerous.

I did my job as a Combat Medic with responsibility, intention, and never delayed my response to the shout of “MEDIC”. No matter what. Always did my best even at my own peril. Never lost my moral compass.

Back in 1969 and 70, I didn’t know the life-expectancy of my role. I survived my tour of duty with only one small shrapnel wound on the back of my left hand which I would report to get a Purple Hart, after working on several severe and fatal wounds on my combat brothers. Developed PTSD in Vietnam, before it was named in the DSA as a clinical disorder.

In 2020, Agent Orange extended my 6-seconds life expectancy from 3 to 5 years with aggressive multiple myeloma.
Between the chronic PTSD and my cancer, I am contantly reminded of my war experience as a Combat Medic in Vietnam. I’m still fighting my war, now surviving medically.

01/03/2026

We lost a generation of Patriots, and proven warriors. Traumatized by our war experiences, we were Ostrasized, Isolated, anf Disdained. Many experienced Guilt and Shame. Some took to alcohol, illegal substance use and 21-22 veterans killed themselves every day. It’s a shame.

How did your anti-Vietnam actions affected the above veterans?

How did you make it well?

01/01/2026

I shall always recall spending Christmas Eve in 1969, with Hepatitis, atop a platform 60 above ground on
the perimeter of the 6th Convalescent Hospital in Cam Ran Bay, on guard
watching a full-blown firefight evolve some distance away from me. I recall thinking it was Christmas. Nothing else. Not the climbing of the tower, nor its descent. I wasn’t thinking about Christmas Eve or “Nochebuena” back in the world and at my family’s home. I was there to prevent the firefight to enter the hospital’s perimeter. So, I spent the whole time gauging intensity and proximity. It was a once in a lifetime experience.

12/31/2025

Take his words and know that what you hear are just the words. To the real warrior, and attentive listener, these words are not just words -like they are to you. To him/her, as seasoned warrior, the words convey the feelings, and circumstances around combat’s lethality, it's cost: benefit ratio, and the emotional burden of trauma that the warrior will carry for the rest of his life.
War is not a spectator sport.

12/26/2025

12/26/2025

On my first long-range patrol operation, we stopped at a tiny hamlet to form a night perimeter and rest. Running around were small brown skinned kids playing, loose chickens pecking at the ground, and I thought, “this is just like home in Loiza Aldea where my Mom grew up. What am I doing here?”

After a few seconds, my mind responded, “defending against the spread of communism”. That view helped me rationalize the war until I saw things I could not accept or live with with.

12/13/2025

These and other similar stories that help understand what soldiers experienced in Vietnam, are way too late to help anyone of us. Way too late. They could have helped more of us reintegrate into civilian life if the adverse public would have known; if the short clips or reels would have been broadcasted before the six’o clock news on TV where the list of new daily casualties were presented.

12/06/2025

Five decades after coming home, presently there is more content shared about combat arms vietnam veterans in social media than ever before. Just as the majority of us is dying, many from cancer caused by Agent Orange.

12/06/2025

12/04/2025

People around me use the
acronym P.T.S.D. ubiquitously for any scare. anyas if it meant they had a BIG scare, without knowing what it is and understanding the specific symptom clusters and the dynamics of thei interaction.

Trauma is a real thing. Stress is another rea thing too. Post Traumatic Stress (PTS) is yet another psychiatric term, along the continuoum, that is serious enough to be treated.

If you are hoing to say it, at least understand the basic nomenclature. PTSD is an Anxiety-based psychiatric disorder with defined clusters of symptoms and graduated levels of severity. It can be debilitating and may contribute to fatality. 48 % of the people who comit su***de had PTSD backgrounds.

I have chronic PTSD and cringe at the banality of its usage as slang. The meme uses simple language to describe a complex dosorder.


12/02/2025

Many of my combat arms brothers are hurting to the point of su***de. That’s horrible pain. We need to bring them to a peaceful farm and have them tell their storries an cry, sob, releasing those untended emotions that have laid burried under so much social pressure, cleansing and recalibrating using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.