At Last!

After a year of doing interviews of veterans who use the Hot Springs VA, and six more months of editing, proofing and publishing, the book about the battle of the veterans and the community of Hot Springs to save our VA will be arriving in town. I will be selling copies at the Traveling Wall coming to town during July 31 through August 4, and copies will be available on line at Amazon and at the local book store in town, Black Hills Books and Treasures.

It will also be available in time on other Internet forms, but for now, the feel of the book in my hands is all that matters to me. I love book-in-hand and am reluctant to include the speedier, more accessible means of accessing these stories.

And these stories!!! What can I say? Veterans from all conflicts and branches of service have offered their testimonials, at times a most painful experience, in order to try in some manner to influence the powers that be to save and grow this VA facility that has become a special healing part of their lives.

The stories are compelling, honest, raw and eye-opening! I have been honored to be included in some small way in the lives of these veterans who have served our country in peacetime and war, through soggy jungles, freezing waters, dusty deserts or dangerous front lines. Some guarded, some patrolled, some set up communication or worked behind the lines. What all had in common was obedience to a higher authority, a loss of ultimate decision making in where they served or what they did. For a period of their lives they gave up personal gains in service to their country.

Now these same veterans are asking for all the benefits that they were once promised for their years of service. They also want this VA to remain where it is and where it has been healing veterans for over one hundred years.

What I did was to listen and write their testimonials. What you can do is to listen to their stories, walk for a brief time in their shoes, honor their wishes and thank them for their service.