The year is 1968. Bill returns home to Springfield, Massachusetts after serving six years in the Vietnam war. He is welcomed by his mother, father, and 10 year old brother Frederick. He’s different, more nervous and paranoid.  His mother Mary attempts to tuck him in one day, and this sets off a reaction many veterans know. Bill springs up in a panic, thinking he’s under attack. His brother Fred witnesses the entire thing. How a war in a far-away land has scarred his favorite older brother. The family tried to send care packages across the Atlantic. Cookies, the local paper, things to bring a sense of home, but they never reached Vietnam. Bill was alone, with nothing but his uniform and a homesick feeling in his heart.

A beloved member of a family, a son, a brother was sent off in a senseless war that did no good. According to people who witnessed it first hand, it was absolutely unnecessary. Despite an attempt at peace by President Kennedy, the war continued and skyrocketed once Nixon took office despite vehement opposition.The Vietnam War was so unpopular that some veterans, upon returning home, weren’t greeted by families. People opposing the war called them “baby-killers” and “murderers”. Fred himself grew his hair long as an adolescent to protest the thousands of young boys being drafted to fight in a country many could not find on a map. Such a meaningless war meant much more when brothers came home traumatized, or worse. The time spent in Vietnam, and the things the U.S did there, will forever remain an inkspot on U.S history.