Veterans Day 2025

Fortunate Son: The Healing of a Vietnam Vet - Lewis B. Puller, Jr.

In the first part of this autobiography, Puller tells how hard it was to be the son of the most decorated Marine in the in the history of the Corps, Gen. Lewis “Chesty” Puller Sr.  Talk about larger than life! Marines told Chesty stories such as the time Puller was shown the prototype of a flamethrower. He asked, “Where does the bayonet go?”

The second part covers Puller’s combat experience in Vietnam. Puller joined the Marines after graduating from the College of William and Mary in 1967. The following summer he married Linda, nicknamed Toddy. He was sent to Vietnam as a second lieutenant

After two months in the field - every day an eternity - on October 11, 1968 he stepped on a mine booby trap. “I had no idea,” he wrote, “that the pink mist that engulfed me had been caused by the vaporization of most of my right and left legs.” He lost parts of both hands and most of his buttocks and stomach too. Doctors later gave testimony before a pension benefit board that they had rarely seen any survivor who was as gravely wounded and disabled as Puller.

The next part of the book is about his physical therapy and the long road to the point where he could resume his life. As illness memoir, this will fascinate readers who are curious about physical therapy to rehab lower limb amputees. Puller tells funny stories about the antics of fellow patient Bob Kerrey, who was to pull antics of a Senatorial sort during the Clinton years. Puller became the proud father of two children. He earned a law degree at William and Mary in 1974 and went to work for the government in Veterans Affairs.

In 1978 he ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for an eastern Virginia congressional seat. This section of the book is interesting too because it tells about the grind of a campaign, the chuckle-headedness of some voters and the spite and malice of politicians.

He ran against the canny and skillful Paul S. Trible, who later acted in the usual vindictive fashion of politicians by vetoing Puller for a job he could not have been more qualified to do. The strong appeal of this book is Puller’s willingness to name names.

Besides being a memoir of war, physical therapy, and politics, this is also an addiction memoir. He had bouts with survivor’s guilt, depression, alcoholism, and dependence on painkillers. His experience with a 12-step program - which he oddly does not name - will inspire readers. The memoir ends on a positive note.

This memoir was published to great acclaim in 1991. It won the Pulitzer Prize. Unfortunately, in the next couple of years Puller’s life unraveled because of clinical depression and relapse into alcohol and substance abuse. On May 11, 1994 Puller, at the age of 48, took his own life in his Alexandria, VA house.

Puller was buried in Arlington with full military honors. “He had fought his way out of so many holes,” Bob Kerrey told People magazine at the time. “In the end he couldn't fight his way out of the last one.”