A Memoir: A innocent 18 year old leaves home to join the military during a time of war.
Their daughter and granddaughter reside in Florida and their son in Oregon..
Craig and his wife, Della, live in Brookings, SD and have two children.
Educated with a degree in Mortuary Science he spends the next 34 years are spent in the funeral service industry.
Enlisting in the Marine Corps to escape home he finds himself in the jungles of Vietnam for 20 months and then at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, CA as a Drill Instructor.
Craig TSCHETTER, writes vividly about being raised by parents of strict Mennonite faith and his struggles to deal with their religious mandates.
What he really wants to tell them is: 15 Minutes AGO.
When people ask him when he was in Vietnam, he responds by saying from November 1967 - July 1969.
Little does anyone know the torment he\'s forced to live with everyday.
His family and friends see him as a happy, success former marine living life\'s dream.
No one but his wife understands the life he live and the medications required to keep him level.
Afraid of what he might do he finds help thru the local Veterans Hospital.
Obsessed with memories of Vietnam that won\'t leave him alone he see suicide as his only reprieve.
Years pass before he falls into a deep dark hole of depression.
He marries, starts a family, earns his college degree while facing the hostile professors and student body in protest over the war he so valiantly fought.
After training seven platoons of raw recruit to face the hostile environment he left he is discharged after 4 years of a honorable decorated service.
Finally he is sent to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, CA to become a Drill Instructor.
Wounded twice, forced to witness a haunting murder, and living one day at a time he struggles to meet the date he can leave Vietnam.
He serves 20 months in Vietnam during the height of the war (67-69) as a combat radio operator.
The Marine Corps boot camp and further training leave him filled with fear, uncertainty, and yet as a marine filled with pride.
He leaves because he can no longer live with the religious mandates imposed by his parents Mennonite faith.
A Memoir: A innocent 18 year old leaves home to join the military during a time of war
