The Living Ghosts: Del Mar to Vietnam, 50th Anniversary

50 years after the Vietnam War this soldier/father/hero is getting help with his PTSD through a modern invention. Explore seven years of recalled events from one of Vietnam's bloodiest battles at LZ Grant, horrific memories he now says are more manageable because of Social Media. Read the fascinating story today.The Living Ghosts as explained by Rick Griffith... "Social media is emerging as a mental medicine of sorts, a salve that soothes the soul; for many, it keeps the PTSD demons at bay. It’s a new way of journaling, a tool the psychological community has long touted as a means of mental housekeeping. For some, it’s a slick and easy way to chip away at the horrors of war so often locked up in the depths of one’s brain.Think of your own family and friends who know the hideous nature of war firsthand. How often have you heard this phrase? “He can’t talk about it.” The old warriors know it as shell-shock. The younger ones call it PTSD. The brain is struggling to fit the multitude of hideous memories, sights, sounds, odors, pain, and suffering into some semblance of the old self. It has been 50 years since fun loving, ever smiling Del Mar beach boy Howard Fisher nearly bought the farm at LZ Grant (Vietnam). Not once in all that time did I ask him about his injuries or experiences in Viet Nam. Not once did I look AT his horribly disfigured face. One could not get past his eyes -- so brilliant, so full of life. His broad smile shone through as before albeit misshapen and without many teeth. Fisher once quipped to a film crew, “I always thought it would be sort of cool to have some sort of battle scar, just not there.” Few people would be able to joke about losing their lower jaw. This speaks volumes of the man’s spirit, his zest for life, his zeal to survive. Oddly, in all these years I was oblivious to his PTSD, and all that comes with it. I only learned of Fisher’s psychological scars through his abundant, succinct social media postings."