Deadly Waters: The Vietnam Naval War and Its Aftermath

Deadly Waters is a work of historical fiction based on true events that tells how the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs perverted Congressional Law to cheat 229,000 Vietnam Blue Water Navy Sailors out of all possible compensation for Agent Orange caused illnesses. It is a book every patriotic American who has ever welcomed home someone in uniform by saying, “Thank you for your service,” should read. This is a story of love, war, and the promise America made and broke to those sailors she sent to fight on the toxic waters of South East Asia. It’s told through the eyes of seventeen year old Zachariah Martin, who in the fall of 1964, leaves his family farm in rural Vermont to enlist in the Navy. After boot camp he is stationed on a destroyer which is quickly deployed to Vietnam. He and his ship are heavily involved in close coastal and river warfare. Martin grows into a skilled deck seaman, gunner, and helmsman. He manages to survive the constant dangers of the Viet Cong, and an unforgiving sea. In spite of prolonged separations, his love for his hometown girl, Tally Goodwin, survives, and grows as well. After his discharge it blossoms into a strong and loving marriage. Side by side Zack and Tally face the many obstacles and hardships life throws in their path, including diseases caused by his exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange in Vietnam. When they least expect it, they find themselves embroiled in the toughest fight of their lives with an organization they were counting on for medical help; an organization they, like most Americans, believed to be a friend to all who served their country with honor, but turned out to be a true and terrible enemy far more cold-hearted and callous then Zack or any of his 229,000 brothers had ever encountered before: the Veterans Administration.