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Vietnam: No Regrets
One Soldiers Tour of Duty
Message to the Troops
Message to the Troops
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Reviews
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Sample Pics
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Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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J. Richard Watkins
Author J. Richard Watkins was born and raised in Brockton, MA. After graduating High School in June 1968, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. By October of the same year, he was preparing for his service in Vietnam.
He spent a year of active duty, most of which was spent in an office somewhere in the middle of Kansas, Watkins requested combat duty and spent a full year in Vietnam.
For this single year of his life he was part of the 25th Infantry Division and was awarded 16 service medals. In addition to the standard medals awarded to all who served during this war, and his unit’s collective medals - the Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation, Army Presidential Unit Citation and Army Meritorious Unit Award - Richard was personally awarded the Vietnam Gallantry Cross, two Army Commendation Medals, and four Air Medals.
Watkins, an expert rifleman, earned the Combat Infantry Badge, the U.S. Army combat service recognition decoration awarded to soldiers - enlisted men and officers holding rank of colonel or below - who personally fought in active ground combat while an assigned member of either an infantry or a Special Forces unit, of brigade size or smaller.
Following his year in Vietnam, Watkins was one of the lucky men to return home and settled again in Brockton - alive and as physically complete as he had been upon departure. He became self-employed and worked for the local government as a Constable until his retirement in 2001. He currently remains a Eucharistic Minster for his church.
Watkins is a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #697 and Commander of the American Legion Post #35. Over the years Watkins’ time in Vietnam – the people he met, the experiences that shaped him as a man, and ultimately, reflected throughout his life – became paramount to understanding who he is today.
For inexplicable reasons, he felt compelled to put his story to paper. As he wrote, the goal became clear: to provide understanding to the people in his own life who couldn’t know what it was like to be there.
Vietnam, No Regrets is the culmination of those experiences. It chronicles the daily understanding, and coming to terms, of one serviceman over the course of his year in combat, on the killing fields of Vietnam.
He had no idea that his own necessity would provide closure and, in a strange way, openness, amongst families who read his story. “The best response I get, and I get it often, is that my book has helped another veteran open up to his wife or child about his experiences abroad. Having done that just once made the process, for me, completely worth every struggle it presented.”
“Of all the things to come out of my experiences in Vietnam, never would I, a high school educated, non-reader, believe I would be authoring a book. You know how funny that sounds to me, even saying it, knowing it to be the truth?!” It is true, Watkins own story is just the third book he can ever recall reading… the other two? Red Badge of Courage and Scarface… in case you were wondering.
The book has afforded Watkins another unexpected turn in his life. Now a published author, he marvels at, and embraces, the role of public speaker. He regularly speaks about his experiences in the classrooms of many of this country’s finest academies. He has been asked to speak on bases across the country and to professional groups, throughout the community, hoping to gain understanding through his experiences.
The book itself has been an overwhelming success. In just its second year of print, Vietnam No Regrets has sold more than 7,500 copies, most of which J. Richard Watkins has personally signed and hand-delivered. “My goal is to ensure that each copy of this book isn’t just sold, but finds a proper home, because it isn’t just One Soldier’s Tour of Duty, but my own. I need to know that the people who receive my life in their hands, value it.”
