Billups’ highly praised book is an utterly unique Vietnam memoir that served to help him reconnect with his daughter.
WILMINGTON, NC, December 12, 2021 /24-7PressRelease/ — When we think about memoirs written by veterans about their war experiences, we usually do not expect to find that those experiences can be used to heal relationships. Yet that is what happened for Jack Billups and his daughter Naomi. After 48 years, Jack Billups returned to the battlefields of Vietnam with his daughter, where he completed a memoir in real time that helped him reclaim his relationship with his daughter.
This is what sets Billups’ book apart from other memoirs about serving during times of war. It is unlike any other book in this genre you will read, and makes this book the ideal holiday gift for veterans and family members.
This is not a book about difficult readjustments or strained relationships as the result of military service. We know that readjustment for the military veteran is often difficult and can erode family relationships, whether as the result of extreme stress, broken communication, readjustment to civilian life or a host of other issues, as the returning veteran learns to live with the effect of the war experience. It is instead a love story, combined with a dramatic and searing account of the Vietnam war experience. That experience is shared with a family member, in the most intimate way possible.
In one sense,’My Vietnam: A Gift to My Daughter’, is an utterly unique Vietnam memoir, written by a former “grunt”, that puts the reader into a pair of combat boots, and allows them to see, hear, smell, taste, and touch the Vietnam combat experience in vivid detail. That is but part of the story.
“Hey Dad, please share your Vietnam experiences?” Naomi’s request set into motion a journey, 50 years into the past, as a “grunt” in the steamy jungles of Vietnam. Four months later with his memoir completed, Naomi asked, “Dad, let’s go to Vietnam, just you and me?” Could the ghosts of Vietnam past morph into a father and daughter blessing in the present?
George C. Colclough, Col. Inf (ret) USAR, former president and CEO of Smith & Wesson, stated in the introduction to the book, “Just another Vietnam War book? Certainly not, Jack takes you down two roads as he embarks on one remarkable journey with his daughter. First, Jack effectively articulates his story in such a way that puts the reader into the boots of a grunt, causing them to feel what he felt, and understand the daunting challenges of those who traveled the Vietnam jungle.
“Secondly, Jack and his daughter continued this remarkable adventure as they traveled back to Vietnam to return to the places where her father had so many vivid experiences. A wonderful story!”
For Jack Billups, what began as a Vietnam memoir morphed into an experience that drew him and his daughter back together in unexpected ways. It is also a compelling memoir that reconciles America and Vietnam, then and now, including the culture shock of seeing Vietnam as it exists today. It offers a heartfelt and heartwarming message to the people of both countries, and a greater understanding of what the old song “Ruby” called “that crazy Asian war.”
Readers and reviewers alike have praised ‘My Vietnam: A Gift to My Daughter’. It has been called “A beautiful journey to healing,” and “A thought-provoking and introspective Vietnam memoir”. One reviewer said, “The book was so good, I was sad when I finished it.” Another stated, “Jack’s memory of his time in Vietnam has been beautifully detailed in his book. Not everyone wants to relive such a terrible page in our American history, but Jack was able to do a remarkable job talking about actual events that he lived through and came back home in one piece to give such a wonderful gift he has given to his daughter.”
Another wrote, “The book delivered on my husband’s hopes for a healing response to what our Armed Services faced over there. My husband usually can’t read much Vietnam War material due to PTSD. He read this in just a few days; it was that good. Our thanks to the author for undertaking this topic and telling his story.”
The book will make an ideal Holiday gift for veterans, spouses and children of veterans and others who have been impacted in any way by serving in any branch of the military.
Jack Billups is available for media interviews and can be reached using the information below or by email at jabillups49@gmail.com. ‘My Vietnam: A Gift to My Daughter’ is available at Amazon in Kindle, paperback and audio formats. More information is available at Billups’ website at https://myvietnambook.com.
About Jack Billups:
As a 19-year-old Army volunteer, Sgt. Jack Billups received the Bronze Star with the V attachment. He was awarded the Air Medal, which went to those who participated in combat aerial missions. Assigned to the 1st Air Calvary infantry as a M60 machine gunner, Jack served in the steamy jungles near the Ho Chi Minh trail along the Cambodian border.
Jack grew up during the 1950s and early 1960s in a peaceful Southern California community populated by many senior citizens and dotted with chicken ranches. He is a dependable and talented “everyman” who makes no claim about his service in Vietnam except for being a patriotic American who did “the right thing” as he saw it. He maintained that attitude throughout his life. Asked to talk about his military experience by his daughter, he began writing it out, and ended up exposing 50-year-old forgotten memories and emotions about the jungle war, concluding with a trip back to Vietnam with his daughter.
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