Going to college during the war

I was in college during the Viet Nam war, and was not very negative about it until the news reported so many horrific videos taken of people and areas burning due to napalm. This was true for many people. But what brought it home to me were my interactions with my male friends after they returned to civilian life and college. 

One friend wore sunglasses, a long coat, and wore a complete beard and long hair. He appeared to be hiding. He was very paranoid, seemed to be afraid of police, seemed to be afraid of going off the campus or in the public other than student groups.

Another guy and I were sitting in his living room drinking beer, relaxing to music, everything seemed A. Suddenly he went to his room and came back with something that he laid down beside me. I finally picked it up and realized to my horror that it was a ring of ears. Human ears. I asked him about it and he looked kind of dazed, and didn't say anything then or any other time about what he had shown me.

At another time, this man and I were with several other friends camping at a lake. During the night I was awakened by hearing him, and became aware he was running all around the camping area. I also became aware of a helicopter flying in the area. Then I and the other fellow campers realized our friend was having some type of flashback related to the sound of the helicopter.

Although this man was in many ways the same, in other ways, such as his behavior when we were alone and he seemed to want to talk but could not, and the event on the camping trip, it was very clear he was totally different, and we began to wonder if he would ever be the old friend we had known in high school.

These two men were the closest to me of all the people I knew that had been in Viet Nam. But I did do a lot of protest work, went to Washington for a couple marches, and went to meetings to plan protest work with people who had been in Viet Nam.

They all seemed hurt, did more drugs than the rest of us, were more reclusive than the rest of us, and those things were why I protested the war.