Never again will one generation of Veterans abandon another. ~Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) Introduction by JoAnn Forrester Vietnam! Vietnam, the war of the Baby Boomer generation has left a multitude of raw scars on our national conscience. A war, where 9.2 million American men and women served through-out the world during an […]
Young men, hear an old man to whom old men hearkened when he was young. ~ Gaius Octavius Thurinus ( Augustus) My friend Jim Northrup recently passed away. Jim and I became acquainted at a veteran’s event in which he was […]
Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass…It’s about learning to dance in the rain. ∼Vivian Greene George is one of my oldest and best friends. We grew up together in the “Sunnyside” neighborhood of Kenosha, Wisconsin. George lived about four houses down […]
I flew to desolate fire bases filled with the tools of war and the men who used them. It was my job to perform the miracle of making the war disappear (however briefly) for boys who had been trained to kill. It was my mission to raise the morale of children who had grown old […]
RED ENGINE PRESS ANNOUNCES THE RELEASE OF BACK TO THE WORLD, THE SEQUEL TO THE AWARD WINNING NOVEL, THE KANSAS NCO, BY JOE CAMPOLO, Jr. Red Engine Press Pittsburgh PA., May 16, 2016 — Red Engine Press announces the release of the new book, Back To The World, by bestselling author Joe Campolo, […]
Back to the World is a well-crafted follow-up to The Kansas NCO. Joe Campolo allows the reader to experience the frustrations of returning Vietnam veterans whose country abandoned them. Joe is able to take you from the jungles of Nam to the mean streets of America. God Bless all our veterans. ~ George Dooley, U.S. […]
Show me an alley, show me a train. Show me a hobo who sleeps out in the rain. And I’ll show you a young man with many reasons why, there but for fortune, go you or I. ~ Phil Ochs I had quite a few jobs when I was a kid, delivering […]
No Peace We came home nearly forty years ago to a place that we didn’t know, and that didn’t know us. We tried our best to fit in, to go back in time, trying to return to who we were and what we had been just a few short years earlier. For most of us […]
We were castoffs and slaves, orphans and unwanteds and used-to-be princesses…and we were mighty. ~Lesley Livingston, The Valiant One of the many unfortunate by-products of war are orphans. The orphanages near our base at Phu Cat, Vietnam were visited by the base chaplains who brought sustenance in the way of food, clothing, and […]
Many people have asked about the characters of my books, The Kansas NCO and Back To The World, particularly during speaking engagements. All of the characters in the books are based upon real people, and exhibit characteristics from those people. Some are based more on fiction than on fact, others more on fact than fiction. […]