Welcome Home from Vietnam, Finally

Welcome Home from Vietnam, Finally Gus witnessed the Vietnam war's devastating effects on the body, mind and soul. "Welcome Home" defines his year at the 85th Evacuation Hospital. Wrong!

"Letters To Helene" relates his descent into PTSD, hitting bottom and his salvation. Gus Kappler decided as a sophomore at Port Jefferson High School on Long Island, New York, in 1955 to become a surgeon. The treadmill of excelling academically then began and lasted seventeen years. Gus and Robin Viverito started their life together with a first date on Friday, April 13, 1957, and are still going strong. In 1970, at the completion of the surgical residency at the Medical College of Virginia, one major previously unanticipated hurdle, loomed ahead of Robin and Gus-Vietnam. The army drafted me as an intern in 1965, and I was given a five-year deferment. We thought the Vietnam War would have ended by then. Robin and I had two children: Kim, four, and Chris, six months of age. We had planned our survival strategy, and I departed for a year's duty as a trauma surgeon at the 85th Evacuation Hospital, Phu Bai, Vietnam, arriving there on September 7, 1970. Upon my return, we were not the same thirty-year-old kids who had said good-bye in Dallas, Texas, one year earlier. We had lived two disparate lives, literally worlds apart with only short contacts interspersed. I was still trying to rationalize my actions in Vietnam, some of which were immoral by the stateside moral code of peace, and to overcome my training of hatred and dehumanization of the Vietnamese. Time did soften my war-zone feelings. A chance meeting a few years ago with a brilliant Vietnamese medical student completed my exoneration. Today, I'm finally home. Not welcomed by our ungrateful citizens but by the steadfastness of Robin's support and my self-generated efforts to become resurrected from my mental morass.

12/18/2025

My sister returned fourteen letters that I wrote her from Vietnam. They expose my personal change and descent into PTSD. The culprit being witnessing, as a trauma surgeon, the mutilation of teenaged and barely twenty-year solders. Their psyches traumatized and their souls shattered.
My book’s message is that no one is immune to PTSD and it does not discriminate. The disorder is a predictable result when traumatized.
Those affected, as myself, may be rehabilitated. PTSD is preventable. There is hope! Seek out a trained mental health professional.
"Letters To Helene From Vietnam” is available on Amazon.

To all readers of “Letters To Helene From Vietnam.”My words reflect the nature of PTSD and my mechanism of rehabilitatio...
12/03/2025

To all readers of “Letters To Helene From Vietnam.”
My words reflect the nature of PTSD and my mechanism of rehabilitation.
That was my experience - I do hope it helps you.
However, I am encouraging those suffering mentally to seek the counsel of a professional trained to treat mental illness.

11/12/2025

"Letters To Helene From Vietnam" is on Amazon. Learn from a victim who is now functional.

Just in time for Veteran’s Day.“Letters To Helene From Vietnam” IS AVAILABLE on amazon.com in Kindle and Paperback. Go t...
11/10/2025

Just in time for Veteran’s Day.
“Letters To Helene From Vietnam” IS AVAILABLE on amazon.com in Kindle and Paperback. Go to Gus Kappler on Search Amazon.
Or go to my link on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/s?i=digital-text&rh=p_27:Gus+Kappler&s=relevancerank&text=Gus+Kappler&ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_1
The Kindle version is FREE to borrow and its links are downloadable. At the book’s end is the Amazon form to rate the book. Please, fill it out as soon as possible.
Thank you, everyone, for your support in disseminating my life altering message.
Gus

Just in time for Veteran’s Day.“Letters To Helene From Vietnam” IS AVAILABLE on amazon.com in Kindle and Paperback. Go t...
11/10/2025

Just in time for Veteran’s Day.
“Letters To Helene From Vietnam” IS AVAILABLE on amazon.com in Kindle and Paperback. Go to Gus Kappler on Search Amazon.
Or go to my link on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/s?i=digital-text&rh=p_27:Gus+Kappler&s=relevancerank&text=Gus+Kappler&ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_1
The Kindle version is FREE to borrow and its links are downloadable. At the book’s end is the Amazon form to rate the book. Please, fill it out as soon as possible.
Thank you, everyone, for your support in disseminating my life altering message.
Gus

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10/31/2025

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