The War Within

Nave not read the book yet as loaned to my mother she hasn't been able to put it down it's so interesting also it gives her an insight into what I went through.
I did go to a book launch where I had the privilege to meet Don and his wife Carol had two more books signed for Vietnam Vet mates of mine am looking forward to the return of my copy so I can get started

Don Tate's Vietnam Experience: "I didn't Know it

Don Tate's memoir, "The War Within" is so vast that it could have made 3 separate books. Not only a memoir of an extremely unpopular war, this is a story of how a man can beat his demons within, overcome his goblin's of the past, and ultimately forgive himself for transgressions he thought unpardonable. The oldest of 8 children, he spent most of his childhood in Ellen Grove, a suburb between Brisbane and Ipswich, Australia. This book could have been named "My Greatest Accomplishments", as he bares his sole to the reader all of his lifelong deeds, some quite tarnished. There are subjects in this book rarely touched in other memoirs, such as his volatile relationship with his father, a man that simply could not obey laws. Although Tate's love for his father is blatant, he is put in compromising situations rarely called upon for a youth so innocent. Most of Tate's younger years, up to the point of his joining the Australian military was juxtaposed with the sad fact that his father was incarcerated for one reason or another. A theme that the reader will rapidly grasp is that Don Tate has spent his lifetime quarreling, fighting authority, the Viet Cong, perceived injustices, and even to maintain his own sanity. You are with Tate as he is abused in school by a sadistic teacher, as he is beaten up by an Australian gang banger, as he is shot in the hip almost mortally by the Viet Cong, almost "off's himself " in 2 suicide attempts, countless hi jinks with the opposite sex, and most lamentable, the near erasure from the Australian record books of his military service, an inconsolable injustice that he ultimately prevails from. Four years in the making, this incredible memoir covers subjects inescapable by anyone and translatable by all, e.g. graphic sex and violence, friendship, revenge, remorse and regret. Other territories covered, but not limited to, are war, pride, patriotism, conflict, love, loss, estrangement, suicide, Christianity, God, infidelity, and especially pain (excruciating physical and unbearable mental).
This book has descriptions of violence only one with a strong stomach can endure. Don Tate saw death, killed, saw his fellow "diggers" horribly wounded and maimed, and even retrieved body parts of men alive only moments before. One particularly horrible memory was where Tate at age 19 picked up a dead Viet Cong soldier to bury him. The body broke in two, and the deceased man's intestines landed all over Tate's boots, causing him to instantly regurgitate. The smell of death is just as strong to Tate today as it was forty years ago. Four percent of men involved in combat in Vietnam were wounded. Tate was one of those, getting a machine bullet through his hip joint. Without spoiling the plot, Tate was part of an illegally created Australian platoon that had witnessed what was called a "sapper's funeral" e.g. an atrocity where Viet Cong were slaughtered brutally, some murdered despite the fact that they had surrendered. To get rid of the witnesses, his unit was sent by the Australian "higher ups" on an ambush where 40 men faced 800 of the enemy, a "set up" designed to erase all the witnesses of the previous massacre. However, Tate survived, and after a two year hospitalization, recovered only to find out that all mention of his wartime service and his unit were "mysteriously and suspiciously" erased to cover for those responsible. The only iota that saved Tate was his intelligent decision to film parts of his tour, an indisputable proof that was unassailable by those culpable.

"The War Within" truly started for Don Tate once the conflict in Vietnam was over. Tate was hospitalized for two years with endless infections, skin grafts, disintegrating bones, while his schoolmates and fellow veterans went on with their lives. The only saving grace for Tate was a godsend in Carole, his wife who stuck by his side through everything and anything. The balance of this book documents Tate's struggles to right the wrongs of his unit's history erasure, the "2nd D & E Platoon" from the history books, a fight that is discussed in fascinating detail. In correcting this terrible injustice, Tate was accused by many ex-servicemen of lacking "espirit de corps" by insinuating that the Australian military abuses the most impressionable and vulnerable of soldiers and unfairly rewards undeserving officers of rank with "gallantry medals", giving them immoderate and improper rides through life after the conflict. Tate took a big risk asserting his belief that the Australian military doesn't respect or care about the Vietnam veterans that fought for their country. "The War Within" can be a synonym for an unwarrantable fact that Tate lost a threefold alienation, e.g. fighting in an unpopular war, being wounded and permanently disabled by it, and then by attacking the warmongers that sent him there in the first place is now is divorced from the veteran community he should be welcomed with grateful arms to. The real gist of this book, when it is really broken down, is Tate's dysfunctional relationship with his father affecting him in every aspect of his life, and continues to do this today. Taught by Tate Senior that one's ability to take a punch and how many women could be "caught" was a measure of manhood, the author learns the hard way that "the sins of the father" didn't prove anything at all. Nor did going to Vietnam. Tate now believes that after experiencing his "war within" , each man must gauge his manhood by his sense of responsibility to his wife, family, community, rising above the hand one is given and ensuring that one's children do not repeat the sins of their father.