Ben Cardamone flew over 600 missions, mostly medevac missions, as a Crew Chief in Vietnam. In this interview he describes how his hands were in the blood everyday. He describes the chaos and isolation of coming home. He describes how no one asked him one single question about his experience. No one asked him the questions that he longed to hear.
“How are you?” “Is there anything you want to talk about?”
To deal with this silence, he buried his combat experience and never spoke of it for over 40 years. That had a cost. But, with it came a knowing. In his words, “I am finally owning my wisdom now. It’s my time to speak”.
All of us, veterans and civilians alike, can benefit from listening to his story.