Gripping New Vietnam War Memoir Released this Week

A gripping Vietnam War memoir by combat Veteran and stunt car driver Rick Seaman was released by Putnam and Smith this week.

C.I.B. 1969 – A Combat Infantryman’s Journey, follows a Vietnam Veteran’s trip into hell and a soul-searching look at the way back to civilian life. This story is based on the memoirs of 20-year-old army grunt Rick Seaman, from the jungled swamps of enemy territory in South Vietnam to an ongoing, forty-year battle with the demons of PTSD.

While in Vietnam, the story exposes an amazing event that transpired between a young North Vietnamese soldier and a few desperate American recon troops including Seaman himself. Seriously wounded just minutes later, Seaman entered the next phase of warfare as a patient in a ward full of very young double and triple amputees from the Vietnam War.

The final chapters chart his course through the raging waters of anti-war fervor, personal challenges and his mission to create positive strategies for taking down the negative forces that cripple so many returning warfighters.

“War marks us all indelibly,” says NVF Founder Shad Meshad about the book. “War is a paradox where disparate things that don’t seem like they could possibly be are part of the same experience. I am grateful for men like Rick, who have the courage to witness, to report back to us what happened, how it felt, how it still feels. It takes a lot of hard work and a lot of staring at things you’d rather not see and certainly rather not remember.”

Rick Seaman is a native of Reading, Pennsylvania. He grew up with fast cars, wild kids and gas station jobs, making him a perfect fit for an unexpected recruitment by a touring Auto Daredevil show in 1967. It was during his second season with this stunt driving show that Rick received another unexpected recruitment in the form of his draft notice.

After basic combat and infantry training, Rick went to the Vietnam War as an infantry rifleman with the 199th Light Infantry Brigade. After seven months of heavy combat, he volunteered for a four-day reconnaissance mission. It was during this mission that Rick was involved in an amazing encounter near the Cambodian border. After returning home, Rick overcame the problems of post-combat reintegration and went on to become one of Hollywood s top stunt drivers, then founding the Motion Picture Driving Clinic, the industry s standard for stunt driver training.

During the 1980 s he honed his passion for writing and in 1996 had a screenplay produced, Chain Reaction by 20th Century Fox. Rick currently has nine new screenplays completed and has produced instructional and documentary videos on stunt driving, defensive driving, as well as a edu-drama on Vietnam War history. In 2005, Rick founded and produced the Veterans TV Network. Rick has waited forty-five years to tell the story of his war and post-war experiences which include that amazing day in the swamps of Vietnam in August of 1969.

For more information and to get the book, visit The Veterans Network.