Potato People

About the Book

The book details the adventures of the eldest son of a working-class family from the urban Midwest who enters the army in the late 1960s and is transformed from a naive cowboy idolizer into a devious, larcenous, gun-carrying reprobate. He delves into the world of black market activities, prostitutes, drugs, and race relations and emerges a callous man for whom death is divided into two basic classes: bodies that are sent away and those that are dismissed as the impersonal enemy. Raised in an all-white environment and having had only one long-term exposure to a person of color, during a short period attending a seminary, he was taught to treat others fairly or to ignore them if their behavior warranted it. In the army, he encounters young men from every part of the country. Some require special treatment, while others introduce him to layers of the spectrum of life, which he did not know existed. He receives specialized training and, instead of being sent directly to Vietnam, is dispatched to Germany to participate in the Cold War in a very active manner. While in the army from 1967 to 1970, he wrote over five hundred letters, many to a girl with whom relations ended upon his return from Vietnam. She gave all the letters back, and they stayed on a shelf, waiting to fulfill the promise to someday write a book about the things that happened. His father also returned the letters that were written to him, which described the language used, the abuse suffered, and the status of race and homosexual relations, as well as the horrors of war, in no uncertain terms. The letters remained untouched for nearly fifty years, but he would sometimes recount an incident to friends or family, receiving in return an urging to write the stories for them. His older daughter chronologically organized the letters, while his other daughter edited the manuscript as it was being written. The idea to write this book, as well as its title, struck while joking with fellow GI’s in the barracks about someday telling the world that no one would believe the things they were doing in the name of serving their country. They would develop audacious pranks to outdo one another or minimalize a situation and just be glad to live another day. They often remarked about spending parents’ and grandparents’ tax money on atrocious wastes of effort and material. The military personnel during the late ’60s fit three distinct categories: juicers, heads, and straights. The first included men from every state, since almost everyone drank now and then. The second referred to the use of acid by some, while smokers and dopers fit right in. Lastly, there were some individuals who preferred not to get wasted by any means. Homosexuals and blacks could occupy any of the groups. The story details army life for a middle-class Midwest man who is introduced to conditions and concepts he had never imagined in Europe, then in the States, and finally in Vietnam. The intended audience is adult, mostly because of the language and the portrayal of man’s cruelty to man, while on the other hand, the book is both nostalgic as well as informative.

About the Author

Jack Schmitt was honorably discharged in 1970, after having signed an affidavit to remain silent for a number of years under penalty of monetary fine and/or imprisonment. He had been repeatedly sent into Laos at a time when any American presence there was being denied by the U. S. government. He discontinued contact with friends and family, returned to finish college and joined a fraternity, choosing to live on campus rather than at home. His veteran status was known to the frat, and he was immediately elected to the role of House Manager. He was never singled out for the standard birthday hazing by the brotherhood, who were all several years younger, and were possibly afraid of Jack. Their motivation for inviting him into the frat was to have someone old enough to purchase alcohol.

He married after completing his college education, and during a conversation with his wife, was finally able to admit that the opposing victims of warfare were people, not the dehumanized enemy he had been trained to eliminate. He continued to be haunted by nightmares involving blood and terror in the jungle. His wife, whom he had met a year after his discharge from the Army, happened to encounter a PTSD therapist at a seminar. She had endured Jack's nightmares through nearly twenty years of marriage. Jack had honored the intent of the affidavit, never disclosing his whereabouts or his missions across the border into Laos. Meeting with the therapist led to attendance at PTSD sessions in a VA Hospital. One by one the other Vietnam veteran patients committed suicide or were incarcerated, leaving Jack as the only person seeking treatment. A second group was formed, with the same result. Jack could speak to the cause of his nightly waking, but the palpable blue cloud of depression would not leave. Ultimately, a Police Social Worker was able to make sense of his discomfort, leaving Jack with a treatable sleep deprivation disorder.

In 1990, he began to drain his memories, manually writing page after page from Day One of his entry into the Army. He had tried joining the local VFW Post, at the behest of a church member, but withdrew immediately when their first request was for him to march in uniform. He avoided reading books about the war, and was deeply shaken during a visit to the Wall in Washington, D.C.

With a Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering and a Master's in Engineering Management, Jack Schmitt spent over four decades designing roads in Illinois. He also served as a part-time instructor for twenty-five years, preparing candidates to take their licensing exam, as well as developing and presenting courses as a faculty member at Midwest College of Engineering. He published a children's book, Toby and the Princess, based upon a story he concocted for his children during bath time. He published an engineering text entitled Plans, Special Provisions and Contract Plan Reviews as well as numerous on-line courses for continuing education. Married for nearly forty-five years, he and his wife, both retired, enjoy traveling and babysitting their grandchildren. Jack has a musical background as a self-taught drummer, is a decorated Viet Nam veteran, and established Red Pencil Ltd., a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Business, providing civil engineers with on-line seminars on a variety of roadway fundamentals.