"Because I made it, I have what they call survivor's guilt." (Video Interview, Part 3, 13:48)
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Robert Lee Rice
Robert Rice, 1967
War: Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Branch: Army Unit: 28th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division Service Location: Fort Gordon, Augusta, Georgia; Phouc Vinh, Lai Khe and Quan Loi, Vietnam Rank: E-3 Place of Birth: TN
A high school dropout who wanted to better his life by joining the Army, Robert Rice got a rude awakening when he shipped off to Vietnam, a place and war he admits he knew little about before arriving there. Getting wounded in combat and nearly dying, going AWOL several times, doing time in the stockade, getting a Dear John letter-Rice's tour of duty was like a laundry list of nearly everything bad that could happen to a man in a war zone. Even after he got back on his feet in the states, the mental turmoil the war had stirred up persisted. He became a minister and worked with convicts, one of whom was the son of a man Rice met in the stockade in Vietnam.