In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

REUNION EVERETT DID NOT MIND THE THOUGHT OF STAYING AT Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland for weeks, if not months, since he would be free to come and go as he pleased. It would be his living quarters while he underwent extensive medical tests. The doctors wanted to check for any damage done by the bad diet and the beatings. They would have to examine his nervous system and take a close look at his jaw bone which periodically slipped out of place ever since that savage beating seven years back. They also wanted to find out more about the parasites he had been passing while in captivity. The dermatologist would be looking at the cause of rashes he had contracted in Vietnam. Above all, he needed a lot of dental repair work. Within minutes of his arrival, a hospital psychiatrist told Everett his parents and sisters were down the hall waiting to see him. "Do you want some time by yourself first?" he asked. "You can sit down and relax and we'll bring them in when you're ready/' Everett wondered what all the fuss was about. Why wait? What did he need to relax for? "Let's go ahead," he said. "You're sure you're ready?" asked the psychiatrist. "Sure," said Everett. The minutes had dragged like hours for Lalo, Chole, Delia and Madeleine. Outwardly they looked composed, despite their jitters, but the longer they waited for him in the privacyof the hospital, the more the suspense heightened and they tingled, feeling giddy and light-headed. Though separated for some time and barely on speaking terms with one another, Chole and Lalo had gotten together again for their son's sake, believing it would be better to pull the wool over his eyes for the time being. They began to fidget, though they did not even glance at each other. Madeleine smoothed her dress and flicked her long black hair back over 272 19 REUNION her shoulders. She was a twelve-year-old when Everett was shot down. Now she was twenty-one and engaged to be married. She wanted to make a good first impression, presenting herself as a mature young adult. But what would she say? How should she greet him? A Navy psychologist had warned them to expect him to be depressed and ill. He might even be carryingworms and parasites. "My God!" thought Madeleine, "What kind of person is coming back? How sick will he be? Will he have scars? Will he recognize me?" She wished the Navy had given them a current report on his physical and mental state instead of alarming them with unsubstantiated concern for his sanity. Delia wondered how much Everett knew about her anti-war activities. Did he know she was a founding member and driving force behind an organization of families of POWs united against the war? Could her brother have learned that she had criss-crossed the country, speaking against the war at rallies from San Francisco to Miami? Or that she had appeared together with Jane Fonda on the Merv Griffin TV show to focus attention on the plight of the POWs and proclaim her opposition to the war? What would he think when he found out she had gone to Paris during the peace talks and lobbied representatives of the Vietcong in her crusade to speed the end of the war? She wondered how he would react to the abuse heaped on her for her views. Would he say she deserved it? The wives of most other POWs, outraged at her public campaign, had materialized at meetings where she was a featured speaker so that they could ridicule and scorn her. Anonymous callers had cussed her by phone while others sent her hate mail. Her many enemies had branded her unpatriotic and even a communist. Delia began to have mixed emotions when she looked at the Stars and Stripes because it came to symbolize all the anger and hostility unleashed by the war. But she never doubted that the war was wrong and the killings in vain. She would have taken the same vehement stand even if Everett had not been a POW. She had not tempered her activism because of alternative views he might hold. To her, the war was transparently insane. Tens of thousands of Americans had died for a flawed policy. That had set her on fire. Even if Everett had perished in captivity, she would have continued the...

Share