About JT. Caldwell
JT Caldwell was born in Ashland, Kentucky, in 1945, into the home of a very conservative Southern Baptist preacher. His father preferred the life of an evangelist, which to him meant organizing churches from the ground up then moving on. This restlessness prompted him to uproot his small family (three children, of which JT was the middle child) on a regular basis. By the time JT was twelve-years-old, he had lived in two coal mining towns in Kentucky, and in Ohio, West Virginia, Florida, and, finally, Lincoln Park, Michigan, where he spent his teenage years.
It was in high school that he decided to be a singer and conductor, so he attended the University of Michigan where he earned both undergraduate and masters degrees in vocal performance. As he was finishing his graduate degree, he signed a contract to teach at the University of Dubuque.
When he graduated in May, 1969, his hopes and plans were all coming true: he had married his high school sweetheart, had his first teaching job, and had successfully staved off the Draft–or so he thought. The arrival of his draft notice in August upended everything.
When he was sent to Vietnam to serve as a chaplain’s assistant, he had no idea of the extent of the changes the war would bring about in his life. He was discharged in 1971, and he thought he and his wife could simply forge ahead with their plans for a career and family. But it was not to be. Unbeknown to him, he was suffering from what would come to be known as PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) that would eventually contribute to the breakup of his marriage in 1978.
His first teaching job was at the University of Maine, Orono, from 1972-1974. In 1974 he took a position at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, where he continues to teach vocal performance.
The Chaplain's Assistant: God, Country, and Vietnam, is a fictionalized account of JT’s experiences in Vietnam. He had made notes about Vietnam for many years, but the idea of putting them into book form had not occurred to him until the Gulf War of 1990-91. He had written some preliminary chapters over the next few years, but it was not until he entered therapy that he began to realize why he had delayed so long in writing the book: avoidance and denial. During one of the early sessions, the therapist mentioned that JT had said nothing about being a veteran, even though he had indicated this on the intake form. JT had, of course, heard about PTSD, but never thought that it might apply to him. It was in that session that the levy started to crumble.
The first draft of the book was written during the summer of 1998, then it was put on a shelf in JT’s home until 2005. By that time, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were achieving a crescendo of violence, patriotic Americans were being lied to by their elected leaders, and soldiers traumatized by the wars were returning home to discover that not only did their government care little for them, but also that their loved ones were not able to understand why they could not simply return to their former lives. It was Vietnam all over again.
So the book came off the shelf, and JT set about to edit and revise it and do what he could to see it published. His efforts bore fruit in the summer of 2007 with the publication of The Chaplain's Assistant: God, Country, and Vietnam.
Book Review
Caldwell's gem is a fast read that tells a compelling story that rings true. Ted is a caught up in a war
he couldn't get out of and although people are dying around him he survives, but...
It's nothing like any Vietnam story you've heard before. It's sexy, witty, profane, emotional and
impossible to put down because you want to know what happens next. For those who lived through
those years, it brings back memories because it captures the country, the war and the people who
are all caught up in it from a fascinating perspective of an author who has been there.
Caldwell captures the insanity and intensity of war with emotion and wit and reminds us what
a waste it all is. But he does it with an awareness and clarity you don't see in other war memoirs.
Compelling War Story, May 28, 2007 -- By John F. Barker "John B." (Mt. Pleasant, MI)
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