Wayne Bowles, of Poland, Maine, grew up in Evanston, Illinois. The year Wayne graduated from high school, jobs were hard to find and his dad, a World War II veteran, suggested he enlist.

“I was scared,” said Bowles, describing the day the recruiter picked him up. It was February 24, 1969, and he was just a 17-year-old kid who knew very little about the war in Vietnam. Basic training lasted only eight weeks and soon Bowles found himself on a plane to Germany and then Vietnam. He remembers the day they landed in Vietnam. In flight, the plane was noisy with newly-minted servicemen talking and joking. However, when the plane touched down their voices went suddenly silent. They were all just kids, and they were scared.

Bowles signed up for combat infantry and during his 1st tour of duty he spent his time on the ground with 11 Bravo. One of his earliest experiences with the violence of war happened at base camp. The soldiers were watching a movie in a common area when the alarm sounded. As they ran toward a bunker there was an explosion nearby. When Bowles turned to urge his friend on, only his buddy’s shoes remained.

Bowles’ platoon would leave base camp for weeks at a time with only what they could carry. According to Bowles, Vietnam was a war of “cover and concealment.” The American soldiers were issued olive-drab uniforms, but would camouflage themselves with whatever they could. The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong, who “knew the ins and outs of the jungle,” were very adept at camouflaging themselves and the consequences to American personnel, as well as those who were thought to be supportive of the Americans, were often brutal and deadly. Bowles and his fellow soldiers were constantly on alert. He felt as if his “head was always on a swivel.” It took many years for that feeling to go away.

According to Bowles, “the suicide rate for young GIs was very high.” Many suicides were preceded by “Dear John letters.” Drugs were easy to come by and many servicemen used them to “relieve the stress of combat. All I wanted to do was get the job done and get home safely.”

Returning from his first tour, Bowles was angry and confused by the lack of support and services available to GIs, and by the outright hostility that was often aimed at them. He had done only what had been asked of him by his country and, although his parents’ pride was evident, it seemed to him that his countrymen were filled with disdain for him and what he had a part in. At the airport, and later in public, soldiers were confronted by anti-war protestors, spit upon, and called “baby-killers.”

Shortly after coming home, Bowles signed up for another tour of duty in Vietnam. He missed his “brothers,” and there was nothing for him here as veterans were often refused employment.

During his second tour, Bowles was assigned to a Huey Helicopter as a “door gunner.” His team flew into combat situations, picking up the wounded and dead from wherever they could land. He left Vietnam “when Saigon was about to fall,” coming home to a country whose opinion of the war, and the soldiers who had done what was asked of them, had not changed.

According to Annette Bowles, who married Wayne after he came back, “at first he would never talk about Vietnam.” He couldn’t get past the hyper-vigilance. A child with a toy gun would startle him. “A car would backfire and I would dive into a bush or a ditch,” added Wayne. Movies about war were often intolerable.

Bowles stayed in the army for several more years and on discharge joined the Coast Guard for four years. From about 1976 until 1993, Bowles served with the National Guard.

The Bowles relocated as Wayne’s assignments changed. While stationed in California, Annette “started a women’s support group” for the wives of combat veterans. According to Annette, “When you marry a military man, you have to understand what he went through.”

There were many sleepless nights and difficult days but, unlike many “veteran” couples whose unions ended in divorce, they stayed together through it all. Annette recalls speaking with their five children about “what he was going through” because she wanted them to understand why their dad would sometimes become moody and angry. Though he had a great deal of support at home, Bowles found that there was still very little support for veterans outside of their families.

For many years, Bowles had terrible and violent nightmares that would take him back to the jungles of Vietnam. Eventually, he was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and was able to obtain counseling and join support groups where he could talk with other veterans who knew firsthand the emotional and physical troubles that were haunting him.

Bowles still drives to Togus Veterans Hospital every month to obtain treatment for Jungle Rot, a condition that causes his toenails to become discolored and the skin on his feet to develop painful rashes and peel. Bowles, along with many other servicemen, developed this condition as the result of walking in mud and living in swamps for extended periods of time. While out in the jungle, the servicemen were required to sleep with their boots on and would sometimes go for a month without a shower or dry clothing.

According to Bowles, “The Vietnam war was not like any other. Nowadays, you see a lot of veterans, and people say thank you.” For years, however, almost no one said “thank you” to Vietnam veterans. “Now, after all these years, they are beginning to recognize us.”

The Bowles visited The Moving Wall, a traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial, when it came to Lewiston, but would like to take a trip to Washington, DC to visit “The Wall” there. Their son, Michael, continued his family’s tradition of commitment to military service by joining the Air Force, and is a veteran of Desert Storm.

After the violence that he witnessed and was a part of, after being spit upon and denigrated by his own countrymen driven by their opposition to the war, after the nightmares, the lack of mental health services, and the continuing medical issues related to his service in Vietnam, Bowle’s attitude remains positive. “I love my country and if asked, I would do it again.” According to Bowles, “I guess I was just one of the lucky ones.”