In 1966, a teenage US Marine Corps medic left the U.S. for a tour in Southeast Asia. He spent one year in Vietnam, and it changed his life forever. For forty years he has fought through depression, nightmares, and recurring flashbacks with intrusive thoughts.
I can still hear their cries, even in my sleep
E. Everett McFall received rays of hope through writing. Still, he continues to struggle with inner demons. He said, “I can still hear their cries, even in my sleep,” and that is the title of his book.
Former Marine Corps medic E. Everett McFall talks about his decades-long battle with PTSD after his military tour of duty in Vietnam. “I Can Still Hear Their Cries, Even in My Sleep” is a heartrending and brutally honest account of one man’s struggle to come to terms with one of the century’s bloodiest wars.
Outskirts Press is pleased to announce the publication of I Can Still Hear Their Cries, Even in My Sleep. Former Marine Corps medic E. Everett McFall served his country with pride and honor, but the horrors he bore witness to in Vietnam more than forty years ago still haunt him. As he writes in his introduction: “I have PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. It’s an instant video playback in my mind, with cranial surround sound … I have been reliving and revisiting my tour in Vietnam, daily, since 1967 …”
At the urging of a psychotherapist at the Jessie Brown Veterans Administration Hospital in Chicago, McFall began to write down his concerns and fears, expressing as openly as possible his thoughts on this experiences in Vietnam. Thus began the painstaking process of relaying his ever-present memories of the Vietnam War into poetry.
I hope to bring healing to the veteran
From the opening poem “You Forgot, I Can’t” through such meditations as “Little Tiny Faces,” “The Eyes of Death,” “The Battles Never STOP,” and “Survivors Guilt,” McFall provides the reader with a much better understanding of PTSD and its effects on the mind and body. It is a cathartic work that shows the torment and pain of a Vietnam War Veteran while providing a shocking, sensory insight into life as a Marine medic.
“With this work,” McFall says, “I hope to bring healing to the veteran as he or she reflects and recalls, and that those non-military folk will be educated and develop a deeper understanding and sympathy for what we went through.”
I Can Still Hear Their Cries is a brave, powerful, and absorbing work that provides support for all veterans and their families; it should be on the shelf of every public and military library.
Dr. James B. Lane, PhD, Distinguished Historian, Prolific Author, and Professor said of the book “Searing and Ruthlessly Honest, a Must Read!”
