All Comments on 'Don't You Need Somebody To Love?'

of the returning VET from NAM. All you need is love, TK U MLJ LV NV

some how you have captured the essence of our returning vets. Respectfully TK U MLJ LV NV

Suberbly written as usual.

having to do uncivilized things and living in fear doing it. Back here in the world, no matter how long you live, you never really forget that in your youth, for a brief time, you were just a civilized boy becoming a man, having to do uncivilized things, and in the night, when you are alone in your deepest sleep, you are no longer here, you are back there living again in fear.

It's beautiful.

Such a wonderfully written and lovely testament about love. A wartime story is always captivating, but combining with a moving plot and characters you can feel through each line, it's a fail safe. Absolutely beautiful.

After all these years I still feel the angst of Viet Nam. I suppose this WAS a love story but it mostly served to remind me of that terrible time in our history. I started my military career during the Viet Nam conflict and while I was not in the Army during that conflict I felt some of what Jim felt when I returned from the Navy. People treated the veterans differently even if they had known them before they left for the service and Nam. We felt out of step with friends and family when we returned and were ostracized. You have provided us with a well written story. I read it in its entirety but really wish I hadn't. Some of those memories I really didn't want to relive.

One of the best stories I've ever read. As I read it, it seemed as if I was there. Great job!

You captured so many different aspects here, the year, the mood, the love in an Italian family, and the passion. This is truely one of the best ever!

such a loving story.. more please

calibeachgirl you have another of your great storys going here! I am very pleased to say I love it and you are doing a marvelous job. Can't wait for the next chapters. Thanks for this one in advance.

You are a great story teller..So. CA in the 60's and 70's...ex Valley guy.. Velvet Turtle and beef wellington, crusin Bob's Big Boy Malibu, Santa Monica, Will Rogers Beach and the ocean, Sepulveda Blvd, Hollywood and crusin the Blvd...became Hollyweird in the 70's..USAF early 60's and Nam was called "a police action".. When in unifom then almost people in the joints would buy you drinks not like later when it became WAR and thousands of our good young men became expendable and despised by many. My 1970 Plum Crazy Challenger delivered the first week they were produced. But the best was LOVE the way you described it. My dear ex was truly the love of my life and the children are my rewards for being. So I want to say as another Bob would....Thanks For The Memories!

Beautiful!!!

is you get to read the stories first. Great writing by a great writer! Cali, you rule! It's a blessing to copy edit for you.

I liked the story, i just feel it was a bit scattered at times.

I liked the scars they both shared and work together to overcome. The progression of their relationship and the emotions within.

If you do decide to ever do more with it, which you can very easily do, develop the PTSD a bit more. Talk more about his experiences, maybe even expand more on the therapy side. You do a good job of showing her fears and anxieties but you could have expanded on his.

Good story otherwise. Hope to read a bit more of your work :)

Since I'm half-Italian, it brought back so many memories. But enough about me. You know how to tell a story, and better yet, how to write it. Thanks for making my day.

after a year in Viet Nam. Yes that was early in the war and yes I was (am) emotionally damaged by the needless "collateral" damage. So many innocent civilians, Vietnamese peasants were killed. So many Vietnamese civilians were prostituted and criminalised. So many innocent American troops were forever changed by living within the war.

You did a very credible job of describing the feelings of being home physically, but being emotionally dead and oh so angry at the impotent old men in Washington who were committing our youth to a year of horror that would affect them for the rest of their lives. Many of us asked our comrades and ourselves if the survivors were the lucky ones or if the peacefully dead were.

Nobody survives the war experience without being forever changed. If one has not been there one CANNOT grasp the emotional and spiritual damage that has happened. Don't try to be empathetic but do try to be sympathetic. Please take my word for it: "War is Hell," is not a platitude!

I don't often identify myself to others as a Vietnam vet, for reasons I consider to be obvious. You have treated his turmoil with sensitivity and realism. I feel honored by your depiction of that turmoil. Thank you.

I was most fortunate to have served 71-74 and not end up in Vietnam but instead in Thailand and later in Germany. I watched a friend of mine go and return a year before I joined and saw some of what you described in your story that he want through. He was the one that actually helped me get the service job I did, which most likely saved my sorry ass from getting it shot off. I did mostly electronic support for the war. And yes I was proud to serve my country.

Your story was well written and tough to read - not hard to read but tough because of the story you told and the way you told it.. And thank you for writing it.

Well done - excellant writing. And thanks for pointing it out to me. I'll be looking forward to reading your other storis.

to love. Forever and ever. Amen.

It seemed to end fairly abruptly.

I really liked the story. It allowed me flashbacks to that same period in my own life. Thoroughly real and enjoyable.

It seems to me whether one was in that war or experienced it second hand, Clint Eastwood characterized it very well when he said in one of his movies “I guess we all died a little in that damn war!”

The war years were 'good' or at least real to me and my time then. The Italian household, priceless. Just needed some Italian-english.

So what was she gossiping with his mother after she bolted from the car???

Your stories always has gaps in them!!!