This website is a collection of military history and stories of the people who lived it.  It is for people who have and haven't served in the military.  It is a memorial and an online museum all in one. 

With your help, this site will ensure the concept of war and the different experiences involved are shared and understood.  It is a place for those involved with war to share their stories and a way for descendants to read and remember those same stories.

We want to hear as many points of view as possible from everyone in the world with knowledge or experience in war.  This site will serve as a collection of as many stories and submissions as possible.  Eventually, it is our hope that this site serves as the beginning, middle, and end of the understanding of war.

A Brief History of the Owner

Hi, my name is Zack. 

Even though I understood and started becoming involved with the concept of war at a young age, I didn't really want to join the military until around 19.  I was going to an Aviation University and I would have loved to be paid in addition to learning to fly awesome, expensive, turbine powered helicopters of war.  

There was one problem though . . . some members of my family really didn't like the idea of my efforts to become a helicopter flying warrant officer.  My dad had died a couple of years before I started the process and he was in the 4th Infantry Division during the Vietnam War, a draftee, but a dedicated soldier none-the-less.  Some believed this was the reason for his death. 

He served in Vietnam and Cambodia, although the latter wasn't admitted until politicians decided the time was right.  My dad served honorably, was commended with a Commendation Medal with a "V" and Oak Leaf Cluster, and returned home (happy to be back). 

While thinking about his story, I remember a sad side note that I really want to throw in - when my dad got off the plane which brought him back home (in uniform, of course), there was a group of hippies at the airport who yelled "baby killer" at him repeatedly.  Yes, it was a commercial flight and it did not land at a military base.  That experience combined with other negative public sentiment of the Vietnam War Era and prevented my dad from talking about his service for many years after he returned home, according to his account.  He also hated guns because of the war.  Kind of a weird connection in my mind, but hey, I'm not going to argue with my dad (online). 

I'm grateful he learned to eventually appreciate target shooting again before he died, because the experiences I shared with him at the target range were some of the best we had.  He eventually told me a few stories about his service as well.  Two of them stood out and may be worthy of reproduction on this website at some point when others have contributed enough to make this website more about everyone's experiences and not just my dad's. 

Back to the story - relieved to be back in the great United States, my father returned to college and completed his college degree.  This helped him in starting a family with the love of his life (my mom) and both of them becoming teachers for somewhere around 30 years.  

Around the end of that approximately 30 year time frame, my dad got a bladder infection.  At least, he and the doctors thought it was a bladder infection until they all found out it was an unusually aggressive form of prostate cancer.  After the first hospital told him they had ran out of options and could make him comfortable until he died, my dad decided to become a patient at MD Anderson in Houston, TX.  

MD Anderson did some extensive testing and then told him he had his cancer as a result of chemical exposure during the Vietnam War.  Pretty cool they can do that right?  I didn't even know that was feasible in medicine (~2004).  Those tests also told him which drugs would be the most effective against his cancer and what clinical trials he should participate in for the greatest chance of success.  Two and a half years later, my dad died - a frail shell of a man he once was. 

Some of my family members blamed the military.  The military had, after all, already admitted to Agent Orange exposure during the Vietnam War causing cancer.  The fact was available long before my father was ever diagnosed with cancer.  The fact specifically affected the areas my father was in and the people my father was with.  My father did not receive any notice or warning recommending early cancer testing. 

The military also decided to make my dad and the rest of his unit take experimental drugs during the war.  According to his account, he was placed (not voluntarily) in a medical test unit where the military would give soldiers pills each day, not tell them what they were, and have the soldiers ingest them.  Guess what?  It turned out a lot of those were carcinogens as well.  Bummer.

However, as my dad told me, "If they hadn't sprayed the chemicals, I might have died back then."  I extended that statement in my mind to cover the experimental drugs as well, and was quite content with my decision to join the military.  However, through the pressure of certain family members, distrust of recruiters, and unanswered questions in my mind - my military service never happened. 

My brother had already enlisted in a military career which would coincidentally place him in the same career field I would eventually be in (he would have a lot less educational debt than me too).  Still, my interests in the military and war have lingered to this day.  I've seen other soldiers die since my dad and have been very sad and disappointed to see the knowledge and the person lost.  These experiences and my interest led to this website in an attempt to spread and retain knowledge and perhaps help decipher one of the greatest enigmas humans have ever experienced - war.

Thanks for coming, I hope you enjoy the memories left here.

Zack Cam