The Forgotten Impact of Vietnam on the Wives and Families of Veterans

The human experience of the Vietnam War is so hard to grasp--the camaraderie, the fear, the smell, the pain. Men were transformed into soldiers, and then into warriors. It was a transformation that all too often had a dark side, leaving men emotionally and spiritually battered for years to come.

For each man, there were women and families who loved them. Charlie Company's Journey Home looks at their lives. They had sent happy, idealistic young men to war, and all too often welcomed home men whom they no longer recognized. Some wives stood by their husbands through homelessness, alcohol abuse, and physical abuse. Others couldn't stand the pain and left the loves of their lives forever. Some reclaimed their loved ones from the brink of oblivion. Some only had memories to cherish.

Told using stories gathered from the women themselves Andrew Wiest reveals who these wives, girlfriends and mothers were, how they experienced the war and how their hopes and dreams changed as America entered perhaps its greatest ever period of social change.