Back Cover Endorsement The horrible road to war can be traveled far too easily and even against our will. In contrast, the road home is long, difficult, confusing, and tragically unmapped. John Fisher has walked these roads through war's furnace and home with his eyes, heart, mind and spirit wide open. He has examined all that lies in his own conscience and soul. He has peeked into corners of self, healing and society that few examine. He has restlessly searched to understand war's wounding and contribute to its healing. For all these reasons and more, John Fisher's witness should be heard and heeded. With courage, devotion and love, John has transformed himself from veteran into spiritual warrior. In this book, The War After the War, he maps his journey so that others can also find their ways home and to self. Edward Tick, PhD - Author, War and the Soul, The Practice of Dream Healing, The Golden Tortoise, Co-director of Soldier's Heart.
Dr. John Fisher, a friend and combat veteran, insisted that I purchase a book in the fall of 2006 entitled, War and the Soul, by Dr. Ed Tick. After 37 years of putting my experiences in a black box never to be reopened I realized that Ed had me pegged. I needed to reconnect with my soul!! In The War after the War: A Warriors Journey Home, Dr. Fisher chronicles his decent into the Underworld – “the abyss” and revisits the experience of war, the killing, the death, the impacts on family, and the questioning of it all. He faces people, events, places and memories. He stares his demons in the face and the realities of those experiences. Through his descent and the rebirth of his soul, he gives us veteran’s valuable lessons and insights into our own journey home. This book is an excellent companion to War and the Soul. For my brothers and sisters, those who find themselves trapped in the toxic wastes of the mind and body and are still suffering from the effects of war; the time to heal is now! As Dr. Tick states: Warriorhood is not an outer role, but an inner spiritual achievement. Mit Parsons, PhD - Vietnam veteran, Co-founder and Board Chairman of Veterans Green Jobs. John W. Fisher is a friend and companion on the warrior’s path to healing, reconciliation and atonement. In The War After the War, John’s raw truth about war and its aftermath is a gripping account of the soul wounding and restorative path a veteran must take to become a healthy warrior. This difficult journey is not optional for those who want to heal from the soul-wounds of war. John knows the truth of war and healing because he has walked the path and guided others as their companion on the inner journey.
I recommend reading this account of John Fisher’s path to wholeness as a light of hope and Spirit for all those touched by war. Rev. Dr. John M. Schluep - Vietnam Era Veteran, Minister of The First Congregational Church, Tallmadge, OH, Director Warriors’ Journey Home Veterans have written many fine books about their war experiences, but few with the depth, insight and spiritual gravity of Vietnam veteran, John Wesley Fisher and his new book, The War After the War. Forty years of processing and hard healing work have resulted in a roadmap for navigating the aftermath of war and ultimately transforming it from horror to homecoming. The War After The War is of immeasurable value not just for all veterans and their healing, but also for the understanding and education of their families, communities and society at
large. Susan Raby-Dunne - Author, Rest Your Head on the Wind (Tales of Trials, Transformation and the Open Road), veteran advocate, composer, filmmaker. wounded by war. Tonya Mayes MS, LPC - Veteran advocate, Viet Nam trip participant. John Fisher is a true patriot. He did not join the Army, but was drafted. John signed his contract to uphold his duty to his country and went to war. He fought in Vietnam because it had been his family’s oath to protect America and it was his as The War After the War: A Warrior's Journey Home, opens the door for many who during this time had no idea what their soldiers paid for upholding their duty. I have the highest regard for John and his work. Years later with the same strengths it took him to survive Vietnam, honor, humility, courage and forgiveness he was able, with help, to allow his soul to return home. Since that time he has become a moving force in both the healing of American civilians and veterans as well as Vietnamese civilians and veterans. The War After War is healing work that John is doing for the United Sates citizens who have left the war buried under the DC monument. John showed up when asked to go to war and is showing up to insure that hopes to end war stay alive. Larry Winters, LMHC - Vietnam veteran and author, The Making and Unmaking of a Marine and Brother-keeper. The War after the War is excellent work, depicted from the author’s experience during and after the Vietnam War. Insightful, penetrating, descriptive, soul searching, and a beautiful story of the struggles to make sense out of what war does to a person. The War After the War is an intimate and insightful look at one man's journey to the hell of war and his long struggle to reclaim his soul. John Fisher is insightful and self reflective as he shares his very personal story of searching and finding healing and peace in the Spiritual Warrior Path. John Fisher’s newest book, The War After the War: A Warrior’s Journey Home, is a beacon of hope for all veterans and those who love and support them. By courageously sharing his personal experiences, John teaches us the meaning of a true warrior. It is a story about transformation and serves as testimony to the resiliency of the human spirit. As a soldier you are forced into the depths of hell, never to return unless you really come home. In the western world we think of homecoming in a one-dimensional way; once off the airplane and on American soil a soldier is home. There in lies the problem with our western thinking; when a part of the soul is missing, a soldier lives in two worlds where nothing makes sense. John is a great example of coming all the way home, finding those lost pieces of his soul and walking the sometimes arduous path of a spiritual warrior. Joseph Campbell used to say; You have to say yes to life, all of life. John Fisher is able to say yes to all of life. He has a deep love of the Vietnamese people and he works tirelessly to help women and men veterans find their way home. John’s book is a heartfelt glimpse of how the wounds known as PTSD can be healed. We are all touched by war in very deep ways. John’s book is an important look at how healing is possible through a veterans’ eyes. I am honored to call John a dear brother. My good friend John Fisher’s personal journey into the abyss and subsequent rediscovery of a forgiving and loving life, is a road that all Americans (vets and non-vets alike) must eventually travel as our nation’s shadow side continues to be exposed. With infinite love and gratitude for John's heartfelt perspectives, may God bless and heal us all. Ron Cole - Vietnam Era Naval pilot, coordinator of U.S. Great Seal Awareness Project (GSAP: Rediscovering America's founding vision of Peace and Unity). I did not go to Viet Nam and lose my soul as John and so many thousands of our peers did. I married a woman with two kids to prevent my being drafted. I still feel like a coward. I deeply appreciate John’s writing as he brings a real picture of what that hell was like, and what needs to happen to heal from the wounds of that hellish experience of war. He tells the story of his time in Viet Nam with a balance of personal vulnerability and scientific fact. He sets a stage on which every veteran should appear, following the steps to “retrieve his/her soul.” It is that retrieval that allows PTSD to become a forgotten acronym for it is the spirit, the soul that is most injured by the “berserk” experience of war. How to proceed is all here. I cannot imagine any veteran of any war not wishing to follow this path. To paraphrase Corinthians, When I was a child, I was wounded as a child, sent into despair, but when I saw the light of my own soul, I became a man (woman). I became a warrior come home. Rev. Dr. Barry Bloom - Minister of Spiritual Life, Jefferson Unitarian Church, Golden, CO. This new book is a must read for mental health professionals and valued addition to their professional libraries. If you are a professional seeking to read more than just a war biography or more than just a training manual in the treatment of war trauma; this book will be a valuable resource. This is a guidebook that will inform you on how John found his soul, connected to his daughters, healed his past, and how he takes his present service to his community & country to a more profound and meaningful level. As a professional who has not been to war, I have felt better informed about the what the journey into war might look like for some or our Veterans and the challenge of coming home to a changed country, community and family. Michelle A. Worden, Licensed Professional Counselor - Veteran Advocate Dr. John Fisher has written the most profound book transcending the warrior’s journey home from the heart of the soul that was wounded in combat so many years ago. Vietnam the War, Vietnam the Country, and Vietnam the Culture has faded from American consciousness, but not from the veteran’s soul. John has found a brilliant manner of presenting an understanding of the “why and how” our soldiers are separated from their “being”, lost in a universe without meaning. This thing we call PTSD is so easily labeled without hope of recovery. Dr. Fisher has lived this experience and has the ability to show the path to healing for a warrior. Finding the “pieces” of the soul, so that the “peace” of the soul can be found provides encouragement for all our warriors on their journey home. This is a must read for all veterans and those who provide medical and mental health services for veterans and their families. Thank you John for your love, tears, and hope. Anthony H. Luick, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist – Vietnam veteran, President and Founder of American Veterans Quest for Peace I sincerely take pride to endorse The War After the War. It is essentially a "life lesson" book. Instrumentally inspiring, the author diligently wrote with tremendous courage to express in words how love, forgiveness, peace, harmony and happiness can win over emotional, mental and psychological pains, sufferings and animosities. The book also vitally represents a symbol of heroism in the fight against grudges to gain human conscience, which potentially heals wounds and ends bitterness. Yang Chee, MA - Former intelligence interpreter/translator for CIA (’72-’75), All humanity needs to learn the value of living with love and benevolence. John Wesley Fisher agrees with this principle in his new book, The War After the War, and shows how it can heal the trauma of war. People from America and Vietnam all love peace. Let’s learn from the painful lesson of the war shared to live in friendship, with respect and understanding of each other. Those of us, who deeply understand the truth by fighting in the war ourselves, don’t want it again. We must forgive each other and be brothers forever. This is the healing from John’s book.
Book Endorsements
John Fisher's heartfelt wish is for all of his veteran brothers and sisters to be able to fully return home. Still serving as “point man”, in The War After the War, he shares how soul loss interferes with the warrior's return . . . not only to their family, but also to the self. John courageously shares the challenges of the healing journey and shines a bright light on the path to reclaiming the soul
CH(Col) William O. Rodefer, Ret - Chaplain and Vietnam veteran.
Kate Dahlstedt, MA, LMHC - Co-Director of Soldier's Heart.
Lin Daley, MS, LCSW - Veteran daughter, ex-wife, mother and advocate.
Shelley Corteville - Army veteran, Women Veterans Liaison for Soldier’s
Heart and student (sociology/social work).
President Emeritus and founder of Lao-Hmong American Coalition
Tran Ky Trung, Journalist — North Vietnamese Army veteran, and author
Dr. Fisher's latest effort provides a personal insight into the struggles with the mental impact of war and provides hope for surviving, even healing, post-traumatic stress disorder after war.
The Honorable Ed Perlmutter, U.S. Congressman
Back Cover Description
NOT WELCOME HOME is a suspense novel about a veteran’s journey back to the scene of his nightmares. Struggling from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Benjamin Franklin West often wonders what in the world he is doing. However, persuasion from his best friend keeps him on track for a healing journey and the discovery that Vietnam is no longer a war, but rather a beautiful country.
Nguyen Duc Anh is a former South Vietnamese who fled his war-torn country at age ten with the end of the fighting in 1975. Fearing communist persecution, he and his family left everything behind to begin a new life in the United States. It was through snowboarding that he connected with Ben, but traveling back to his native land with the veteran made the bond extraordinary.
Back Cover Endorsement
A thoughtful and provocative novel—John Wesley Fisher captures the sights, sounds and feelings of Vietnam, the country, and points the way home for those still trying to cope with Vietnam the war. The mud, heat, fear, frustration, sorrow, anger, detachment and anguish surrounding a young “grunt” draftee and his comrades will grab your heart and wring out your emotions. NOT WELCOME HOME is a must read for all veterans, families and friends who continue to struggle with this enduring tragedy as the author makes a convincing case for the fact that “there is no way to peace, peace is the way.
Bob Resling. Lt. Col., (Ret) USAF Pilot
Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia 1969-1972
Praise for
Not Welcome Home
John Wesley Fisher’s characters come to life on the pages as they engage in a forbidden, dangerous and harrowing quest into the remote mountains of Vietnam. What they seek is something material that they hope will close a chapter for a fellow veteran’s mother. What they find are human connections both healing and spiritual with past friends and foes. In the process of his quest, the Vietnam veteran at the center of this story discovers a beautiful country and its people who are forgiving, welcoming, and compassionate. Welcome home Ben.
Sally Peterson, MA, CCHt,P
Psychotherapist/Clinical Hypnotherapist
I was honored to be one of the first to read John Wesley Fisher’s book, NOT WELCOME HOME. I was especially touched by his inclusion of “the women left behind by the soldiers.” This war caused horrendous pain to all involved and through John’s words, we are able to connect with everyone involved.
Cindy Case
Executive Secretary (Boyfriend K.I.A. in Vietnam)
NOT WELCOME HOME is a book whose time has come. As the wife of a Vietnam veteran, I am grateful for a glimpse of the country of Vietnam and its people through the eyes of another veteran. John Wesley Fisher’s stories of his character’s moving recollections of wartime experiences paint vivid pictures of the war that my husband served in and prefers not to talk about. And Fisher’s depiction of present-day Vietnam brings full circle a story that continues to resonate and reverberate in the lives of many veterans who still suffer the effects of that long-ago war.
S. Lynne Clark
Free lance Writer/Editor
John Wesley Fisher is one of those rare, courageous and devoted individuals who has the love, will, intelligence and capacity to complete the most difficult journeys. NOT WELCOME HOME documents both the blessed and challenging events on this long journey. It helps us all to honestly grasp the terrible realities of war. And it helps readers discover the guiding forces at work in the universe that support us all, and how we may transform the most horrific experiences into life lessons that bring maturity, wisdom, compassion and healing. Accompany John Wesley Fisher on his journey. It will transform you. Edward Tick, Ph.D.
Author of War and the Soul
Director, Soldier's Heart
"John Fisher is an outstanding author that has the gift of sharing with his reader the true essence of soldiers in war and John has the ability to articulate the true feelings of the Vietnam Veteran on his return home."
Leon Rodriguez, Sergeant First Class, (Ret)
U.S. Army Medical Corps, Vietnam: 1967-1970 Decorations: Soldiers Medal (for heroism), 2 awards of The Bronze Star Medal
John steers his reader of NOT WELCOME HOME into the emotional and spiritual necessity for soldiers to face their past enemies. Through fiction he addresses this profound healing by having his charters address their historical fears. The true welcome home never has happened in the US, but instead happens in Vietnam. If only we understood this in our nonfiction world we’d make healing our warriors more successful.
Larry Winters, L.M.H.C.
Vietnam veteran, U.S.M.C.
author of The Making and Unmaking of a Marine
John offers hope to those who have experienced the human toll in war as only someone who has been there can. Forgiveness — of ourselves and others — is the key to alleviate all our suffering.
Ron Cole
Vietnam era U.S. Naval pilot, airline captain (ret), founder of Keys to Peace, coordinator for the U.S. Great Seal Awareness Project (GSAP)
The profound title, "NOT WELCOME HOME ," begins a journey down a challenging path, which winds through the hearts and experiences of Vietnam combat veterans. The work is a mirror reflection of the internal struggles veterans often tragically endure in real life. John Fisher’s plot is an example of how trauma sometimes ends at the place where it all began. Once we begin to "see Vietnam as a country; not a war", then we can become the peacemakers within. Ultimately, the book's title transcends to a much needed "Welcome home" for the many veterans whom Benjamin Franklin West symbolically represents.
Jess DeVanney
Vietnam veteran, U.S.M.C., broadcast manager and media programming consultant KIIM-FM radio, Tucson, AZ, Director Tours of Peace Vietnam veterans.
“The first casualty of war is truth.” In “Not Welcome Home” Dr. John Fisher not only tells the story of war from experience, but involves the reader in the complexities of post war re-integration. The veteran, as described by Dr. Fisher, will never return home to become a civilian. The veteran as well our society is forever changed by war. Dr. Fisher brings this truth to light through the story of a soldier’s journey.
John M. Schluep, D.Min.
(Captain U.S. Army Viet Nam era veteran), Founder Warriors Journey Home Ministry
Dedication:
This book is dedicated to all Vietnam Stories. May they one day rest in peace
It is 1967 and Charlie Armfield is just a few weeks away from the world championship surfing competition when his life is turned upside down and he finds himself, instead, preparing for battle on the front lines in Vietnam. In his stuggle to survive, Charlie turns to techniques that made him a champion at home. As his experiences damage his heart and his spirit, he tries to understand the war and his part in it.
Charlie's homecoming does little to ease the conflict in his soul so he undertakes a journey to redemption and awareness that leads him from one coast to the other and then to the opposite end of the world where he is finally able to come to terms with his past and begin to understand what his future can be.
This new edition of John Wesley Fisher's debut novel presents readers with compelling characters and a thought provoking story even as it offers a path for healing and comfort to veterans of conflicts beyond Vietnam. The deep understanding of a soldier's experience is as valid for today's warriors as it is for Charlie Armfield.
Back Cover Endorsement
John Wesley Fisher is one of those rare, courageous and devoted individuals who has the love, will, intelligence and capacity to complete the most difficult and demanding journeys. His journey took him from being a minister's son cavorting on beautiful beaches to the deepest regions of the hell on earth we call war. Angels in Vietnam documents both the blessed and challenging events on this long journey. It helps us all to honestly grasp the terrible realities of war. And it helps readers discover the guiding forces in the universe that support us all, and how we may transform the most horrific experiences into life lessons that bring maturity, wisdom, compassion and healing. Accompany John Wesley Fisher on his journey. It will transform you.
Edward Tick, Ph.D.
Author of War and the Soul
Director, Soldier's Heart
This is one of the best books to come out of the Vietnam War. Dr. Fisher tells a story like only a combat veteran can tell it. The mud, heat, fear, frustration, sorrow, anger, detachment and anguish surrounding a young "grunt" draftee and his comrades will grab your heart and wring out your emotions. While many Vietnam veterans continue to deal with why they were chosen to fight, what they did while they were there and their personal chaotic road to recovery, he makes a convincing case for the fact that "there are no accidents."
Bob Resling. Lt. Col., (Ret) USAF Pilot
Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia 1969-1972
John Wesley Fisher has successfully captured the serenity, trauma and the raw emotion of a young man’s journey from the beauty of a surfer’s wave, the horror of Vietnam combat and the difficult road of spiritual recovery. This book provides a relevant snap shot of many of the emotional issues facing the returning veterans of today’s war on terrorism from Iraqi and Afghanistan.
Bill Holen
Vietnam Veteran, US Army
Staff member of Congressman Ed Perlmutter (CO-7)
Specializing in national security and veterans issues.
Angels in Vietnam is represented as a fictional story surrounding the life experiences of a brother soldier in Vietnam. Brilliantly woven into the novel are composite events of the author’s life journey as a soldier and warrior who discovers the wisdom of healing spirituality. Veterans of all wars will find this book provides profound insights into the process of mending the wounds of war.
Anthony H. Luick, Ph.D.
Vietnam Veteran, US Army President and Founder
American Veterans Quest for Peace
Angels In Vietnam is a must read for all Veterans of the American War in Vietnam. John's ability to "let it all hang out" in truth thru words is remarkable. His story has given me the courage to move forward with my truth in my heart and hands. Great job John.
Daniel Martin
Vietnam Veteran, USMC
“Angels in Vietnam” is a moving and inspirational story that can assist us in remembering that no matter how treacherous or tragic the path of life may seem, a universal light remains aglow and a mysterious serendipity still seeks to bless, protect and guide us all.”
Dr. Roger Teel
Senior Minister
Mile Hi Church of Religious Science
Denver, Colorado.
Book Club Review
We truly enjoyed reading your book! We agreed unanimously that the book is hard to put down. Helen even admitted staying up until 2:00am to finish it, because she was so drawn in to the story and the characters. We discussed the different 'angels' and the theme of serendipity that runs throughout. The ability of the reader to witness the realities of war with you, yet in a compelling and enlightening way was so unique in a book about war. Because of the topic of the Vietnam war, some members were really not all that excited to read it, but once they did they enjoyed it much more than they anticipated. You're right, it IS historical, and as a novel, is such a good way to learn about the experiences of the soldiers, who like you, were just carrying out orders. It was an enjoyable read, and one of the more thought provoking and deep discussions we've had! Thanks for all the work you've done, writing the book and sharing your experience. I trust many lives will be touched by reading, learning and accepting the wisdom of your wonderful book.
Pamela Kearney
