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I would like to inform Storytime Tapestry authors and readers of a book of my Vietnam poetry now available,

200 color pictures of my brothers-in-arms at war, in 270 pages of beaucoup poems from the heart of a soldier in Vietnam. This poetry conveys with heart and spirit what a soldier really learned from the horrors of war, giving portent of the ripple effect of war across generations that come home to haunt we who fought the battles.

Experience within these pages of verse chilling reality through combat action pictures and intense poetry that will leave the sweet and sour taste of "the Nam" pungent on your tongue, the smell of "the Nam" acrid in your nostrils, and textures of "the Nam" imbedded in you as though you walked beside me in combat.

Tom Marz, 25th Inf. Wolfhounds 1/27th at Cu Chi, Vietnam 69/70, writes: "Thousand Yard Stare is the damndest writing I have ever read. It has sent me into worlds of pain, emotion and excitement. How the hell do you do that? I now have PTSD and it rears its ugly head when I least need it too. I live every hour of my day at some place in Nam. I don't wish to be there, I just AM. The killing I "see" never leaves me, even when I am asleep. That is if I can sleep. I recommend your writing to all my Wolfhound brothers. I go for Rolling Thunder each year, and have laid your poems at the wall. I haven't had any writings tell so much of how I feel and how it profoundly affects my life as yours has done, but then again, I’m sure you know! You have a way of putting things in your “Thousand yard Stare,” that I couldn't ever come close to describing, let alone trying to open up about. Your writing is hell for me, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. It’s hard because it forces me to think about the crap both fresh and buried deep in my soul. I can't learn to deal with it if I can't face it head on. It’s nice to have one of our own to say it like it was, for all the world to see. Your writing is like the Wall, Bro. It keeps me coming back for more. It speaks for everyone who didn't make it back and for those of us who can't put it in words as eloquently as you do!"

"Learn what the warriors learned, for indeed, it is warriors who have first hand seen the evil and devastation of hatred, who first hand know the value of peace, love, compassion and harmony among men." ...Gary Jacobson

Let me introduce myself: My name is Gary Jacobson. I served with B Co 2nd/7th 1st Air Cavalry '66 - '67, as a combat infantryman ... we called ourselves "Grunts," operating out of LZ Betty near beautiful downtown Phan Thiet, Vietnam. Mine was the same unit depicted in the Mel Gibson movie, "We Were Soldiers," only one year later.

Vietnam changed us all indelibly and forever. I'm now on 100% disability rating with an extra hole in my head, covered by a 3X4 inch plate, shrapnel the size of a quarter imbedded three inches into my brain...this all compliments of a trip wire booby trap that when tripped triggered a grenade, that in turn detonated an artillery round ... and in the process completely ruined my whole day...April, 22, 1967, on combat operation in the boonies near Phan Rang, Vietnam.

A Vietnamese legend says, "'All poets are full of silver threads that rise inside them as the moon grows large.' So, when I write, it is because these silver threads are words poking at me, and I must let them out."

War exacts a terrible toll, and though we answered the call to duty for God and country, we did so because, in truth, we had no choice. We in this noble generation had been raised and taught by goodly parents, society and church that we could with honor do nothing else when our country called, though many of us would much rather not have had to go to fight, and perhaps to die.

I do believe Americans should be ready to defend our country when called, but war should be the very, very last alternative to solving political problems ... and too often it's not! In the past we have been too ready to use the war tool because our leaders did not understand its horrifically senseless cost to entire generations of family, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, children, and all who love those who fall, eternally scarred in forever sore afflictions that last a lifetime. In my small way I am trying to help more understand what war is in reality...so we can make more informed choices in future decisions ...

The Nam was terrible, turbulently turning upside down all concepts and values taught by goodly and loving parents and Christian society that in my young life had heretofore held me in their respective arms, teaching and guiding me. Now on my own and far from those loving arms ... Nam tested me, flaunted me to and fro, shook me to the core, and though it took awhile to sink in, Nam also taught me a lot. I call the process of hate and destruction I went through in Vietnam, my "refiners fire."

The "refiners fire," is a process whereby the finest stainless steel cutlery is subjected to intense heat. Raw steel with flaws and imperfections break and crumble under this incredible strain, but the steel cutlery that makes it through this final testing process is hardened with remarkable and unexcelled quality, its worth enhanced greatly by the "refiners fire."

Vietnam was like that for me. It was my "refiners fire." For though I would not wish Nam's daunting task on my worst enemy, Vietnam made me stronger, though it took awhile for the lessons to take, and longer for me to figure them out. Nam revealed more to me of the value and concept of life and death than most will ever know.

Nam embedded in me a new set of senses, an appreciation for the simple things that most mortals take for granted. The memories of that action still bear hard on my soul, making me see the whole world cast in a different hue, harder as the buried demons come back to haunt me. I have more of an understanding of what is real and eternal than most just going about their lives without a clue as to what is important...what is lasting ... what is life and death.

Regular price of: My Thousand Yard Stare is

$20 ... + $6 postage = $26.00, but for a short time, for authors and readers of Storytime Tapestry, I will knock 20% off the regular price, which will come to

$16 + $6 postage = $22.00

Just send money order, cashier's check, or personal check

made out to Gary Jacobson, to:

My Thousand Yard Stare

6325 south Old Hwy 191

Malad, Idaho 83252

You may wish to buy the book instantly at, http://namtour.com/marketplace.html with the security and ease of PayPal or your choice of most credit cards.

Respectfully,

Gary Jacobson

Webmaster of "Vietnam Picture Tour," wherein are contained pictures, telling the story of my "walk in the park" grunts called Vietnam, with the 1st Air Cavalry on combat patrol. http://namtour.com/namtour.html

My Poignant poems index, http://namtour.com/nampoemsNpix.html

each with more combat action Pictures, artwork, and stirring music, each portraying an aspect of life in the Vietnam war I felt embedded on my soul, entangled on the average American boy next door at war...

Many think I am too serious, but my site, "Realm of Poetry" predates my Vietnam writings. It deals with poems from

http://namtour.com/P/RealmOfPoetry.html of love and the the heart, romance, spirituality and meditation, an Angel's Message, Golden Oldies, comedy, Quests of the regal knight Richard Lionhearted to the crusades and seeking the Holy Grail, dueling dragons, frolicking fairies ... tributes to my dear mother, including a treatise on that profane Alzheimer's disease which took her sweet life ... and also links to my site when I rode that foul ogre, a bestial carnivore called war...