Down South & Other Places

About the Book

Down South and Other Places is a nonfiction work by Eric Koplin. He tells a tale of being a support troop (heavy-equipment operator) in Vietnam in 1969. He was an enlisted man, a lance corporal (E3) in the United States Marine Corps. He moves around southern I Corps, providing support to infantry units. His stories are about the craziness of that era and place. He then takes us home to Chicago, Illinois, and the western suburbs of that great city. He tells us stories of how a nineteen-year-old veteran was treated in 1970. He tells us a bit of how he adjusted, and he touches on his posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, which he deals with to this day. He tells of friends, people in general, and veterans hospitals and their staff. The book sums up the uselessness of that war and the awful treatment our returning veterans endured at the hands of their fellow Americans.

About the Author

Eric Koplin began his love of writing in a VA hospital PTSD ward. Down South & Other Places is a work of many years. He wrote and quit and wrote and quit many times. Finally gathering his thoughts together he finished his work in 2017. He spent 12 years altogether in the United States Marine Corps, entering in 1968 at the age of 17 and discharged in 1970. He spent some of 1969 and 1970 in Vietnam. He spent seven years in civilian life which he found to be very difficult because he could not adjust outside of a military environment. He re-entered the Marine Corps in 1977 and, after a 10 year period of hardly any success, left the Corps and entered the civilian world once more. He worked construction jobs for a couple of years before joining the base maintenance department of Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base. His PTSD and major depression made working aboard the base impossible. He was medically retired from the base in 1995 and soon after, entered a VA hospital for PTSD. He still suffers from PTSD and depression to this day. He is also a grateful recovering alcoholic. He has been clean and sober for 30 years. He lives in Jacksonville, NC, with his wife of 43 years, Nancy. They have three successful grown children. Two sons and a daughter. He is active in his community volunteering as a VSO, veteran’s service officer and chapter Chaplain at his local Disabled American Veterans chapter. He has his good days and his difficult ones. He is constantly working on himself with the help of the VA and his higher power. This is his first book.