Media

The Chaplain’s Assistant: God, Country, and Vietnam

is a novel based on JT Caldwell’s experiences when he served as a chaplain’s assistant in Vietnam. The book has a timeless quality and universal appeal that is speaking to veterans and families of veterans in ways no other book about the Vietnam War has done. A current member of the military writes, “Caldwell puts into words feelings that solders often can not describe to those who are close to them… [he] is a spokesman for our troops and veterans.”

Author contact:

Phone: 989-560-1174

Email: WBandD@gmail.com

Website: www.TheChaplainsAssistant.com

Mail: WB&D Associates, 2020 S. Mission, Mount Pleasant, MI 48858 USA

Synopsis

The Chaplain’s Assistant: God, Country, and Vietnam is a chronicle of the life of a reluctant soldier, Ted Bertson, from the moment he receives his draft notice in 1969 until his final “welcome home” seventeen years later. 

The book opens in September 1970, after a particularly horrific incident in Vietnam (the incident itself is recounted later in the book).  The timeline then moves back to August 1969, when Ted Bertson received his draft notice, then follows him until his return from the war in December, 1970. The “Postlude” occurs in the spring of 1986, when New York City held a “Welcome Home” celebration for Vietnam veterans. That event triggers a cascade of emotions in Bertson as he finally understands how the war changed his life and the lives of all who fought.