Don’t worry … this is not “the end” of A Veteran’s Journey. Not even close.
Instead, it’s what an author may type when he (or she) finishes writing and publishing a book.
The “Journey”
I began this book project in June 2025, a few days after Memorial Day. I wrote about this “obsession” in an earlier post.
There were 48 men from my hometown (Gainesville, Florida) and the surrounding area (Alachua County) who died while in service during the Vietnam War.
This book is about them.
Forest Hope, president of the local Vietnam Veterans of America chapter, had spoken about these 48 men before on multiple occasions. I didn’t know them personally; they were a few years before my time in service.
This past Memorial Day (2025), Forest brought a couple of posters to display, each with a page of information and a photo of these men. I’d heard him speak of the posters, but this was the first time I’d laid eyes on them.
Our local VVA group meets out at Forest Meadows, a local cemetery east of town, twice each year on Memorial Day and Veterans Day to gather to honor these men, as well as those who have left us since the war. The group has been meeting for decades. It’s a way to remember the fallen.
Putting faces to names on Forest’s poster board was … well, it affected me deeply. It’s hard to describe the emotions, even now, when I think of these men (and tens of thousands of others) who gave their all.
While I served in the US Navy for four years (1973-77), I never stepped foot in Vietnam; the closest I’d come was during Shore Patrol duty when the Kitty Hawk was in port in the Philippines. We spent the day patrolling Grande Island, normally an island resort in Subic Bay, Philippines, but was now a temporary home for Vietnamese who had fled their country.
The war “officially” ended before I reported aboard Kitty Hawk, though I had been stationed in Guam for 15 months prior.
Regardless, seeing this poster of men from my state, my county, some from my city, some who attended the same high school as I, made me think of creating a small booklet: something simple and tangible to hand out to those who might have an interest in learning more about these men.
And so, this journey began.
The Research
I’ve mentioned before that I love research as much as I love writing, so I put on my research cap and dove into my favorite Internet sources. These included Fold3 (fee-based), the National Archives, Find-A-Grave, Wall of Faces, the Virtual Wall, Coffelt Database, and Honor States as a start.
I delved into old newspaper articles via newspapers.com (fee-based) and took a subscription to Ancestry (fee-based). There is a lot of information available through these resources. The Gainesville Sun archives are also available online through the local public library. And of course, high school and college yearbooks via classmates.com.
I also thought it important to reach out to families to get a few ideas or stories about these men growing up before they went off to war. I was able to contact several through messages on Ancestry and Facebook, though I’ll admit, there were a lot of “long shots” and “sorry, I’m not related” responses.
But that’s part of the research process, right?
I wished I could have talked with all these men’s families, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to track down all relations.
The Writing
This has been quite a journey for me. There were several times I had to walk away from the computer and take a few quiet moments to myself. Some of the information I read—the Silver Star, Bronze Star Medal, and Navy-Marine Corps Medal citations and stories from others who served alongside these men—was nothing short of courageous bravery.
So many … so young.
Now that the book is complete, it’s online and for sale from Amazon. All proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter #1092.
However, also note that the book is free to download from my site, in both PDF format and eBook.
The Cover
The book title—“The ‘Nam AC-48”—came to me one morning when I was out on a bike ride. My thinking was that 48 men from Alachua County (AC-48) died in Vietnam, commonly called “The ‘Nam.”
It clicked and seemed right.
I came up with the idea for the front cover image while researching the Vietnam Memorial Wall. The Wall lists over 58,000 names in chronological order by date of casualty, starting at the center apex in 1959, moving to the east end, then resuming from the west end back to the center in 1975, designed to create a “closed circle” of time.
Since I couldn’t design that in a book cover image, I instead copied the individual names from the Wall and pasted them in a chronological order by date of casualty, starting at the top left and continuing to the right, then the second row, left to right, and so on. The first casualty (Vernon T. Carter, Jr.) through the last casualty (Samuel Harrell).
Service Medals
Someone asked about the three ribbons on the front cover. I believe all who fought in Vietnam received these, as well as others.
The far-left ribbon is the National Defense Service Medal. It is presented to recognize all military members who have served on active duty during a declared “national emergency.” To be eligible, members must have served honorably during the war. There is no requirement regarding the amount of time served.
The middle ribbon is the Vietnam Service Medal. It was presented to all members of the Armed Forces of the United States serving at any time between July 4, 1965, and March 28, 1973, in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, or their contiguous waters/airspace.
The far-right ribbon is the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal. It was presented by South Vietnam to recognize members of allied forces who served in the Vietnam War for a period of at least six months; service members who were WIA, captured, or KIA were automatically awarded the medal, regardless of time served. The “1960 Bar” device was meant to indicate the years the war was fought from beginning to end. Since North Vietnam defeated the Republic of Vietnam in 1975, the government no longer existed, and no end date was ever made for the bar.
The Poster Board
During this project, two graphic technological advances occurred that helped me tremendously with photographs and images.
I’ve used Photoshop for years, and while I can do a lot with photography (I’m also a wildlife photographer), trying to “clean up” some of the images I received was a monumental task. To give you an idea, many of these images were old newspaper photos (half-toned and blurred).
First, I discovered an online “image chat” tool called Kontext Chat. It’s a relatively inexpensive online tool (about $.25 per image conversion) that allows you to upload an image, type into the “chat” what you want to do with the image, then revised it, based on what you’ve asked it to do. You can then download the revised image.
Most of my generation friends probably don’t know what a “chat” is—I didn’t either, even though I have a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering.
Yeah, laugh it up, fuzzball.
The “chat” is simply an instruction, or a “prompt” as it’s commonly called, that tells the application what you want to do.
Most of the time, I simply typed in: “sharpen image and enhance details.”
Simple … and most of the time, the results were astounding.
Then, late last year, Google released “Gemini,” another chatbot. It’s free if you have a Google account, like Gmail or Google Drive.
Again, a simple tool with astounding results.
I will tell you that there were times when the produced image was way off. But with a little tweaking, I was able to get the image I hoped for.
Having said that, once I “cleaned up” the images, I then created individual pages, similar to what Forest had on his original posters, using Photoshop.
I’ll spare you the technical details, but I recreated the posters for Forest with the goal of providing another type of poster to display during ceremonies and fundraising events.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, it’s now “The End” of this post.
Until we meet again,
Andy
List of Information Resources
- Ancestry
- Coffelt Database
The Coffelt Database of Vietnam War casualties has its roots in an effort begun by Richard D. Coffelt. A Korean War era soldier and later an attorney in Hays, Kansas, Richard became aware that the government had not made public a central source of information regarding the servicemen and women who died in service in Vietnam. - Find-a-Grave
Find a Grave provide information for burial and other final disposition information for your family, friends and famous people. - Fold3
Fold3 provides access to military records, including the stories, photos, and personal documents of the men and women who served. - National Archives – Vietnam War
- Newspapers by Ancestry
- The Gainesville Sun Archives
- Virtual Wall
The Virtual Wall has memorial pages honoring the 58,300 women and men who are named on “The Wall,” the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, USA. - Wall of Faces
The virtual Wall of Faces features a page dedicated to honoring and remembering every person whose name is inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C
Andy Adkins is a US Navy veteran (’73-77) and the author of several books (www.azadkinsiii.com), many of which are free downloads (PDF, eBook format). He is currently retired and lives in Gainesville, Florida with his wife and life-long soulmate, Becky.