My Story, My Song!: A true and inspirational story...

By Christine Clark Brasfield

This is a true story, as given by the inspiration of events that I experienced in my life. I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, of African American parents, and lived most of my childhood days in the military with my dad and mom. My dad was an officer in the army, and we traveled a lot when I was younger. Growing up with my father was hard sometimes,

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Mar 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9781640881808

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Dedication

This book is dedicated to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and my mother. Mrs. Mary E. Clark, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

1

The War at Home

This is a true story, as given by the inspiration of events that I experienced in my life. I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, of African American parents, and lived most of my childhood days in the military with my dad and mom. My dad was an officer in the army, and we traveled a lot when I was younger. Growing up with my father was hard sometimes, because he had a drinking problem. Fighting in the Vietnam War had a major effect on him, and it caused him to have all kinds of bad thoughts about the war. He would have flashbacks of fighting in the war. My father once told my mother that during the fighting, they had to kill many Vietnamese, and some of them were women and children. The North Vietnamese military would use them to enter the camps with bombs on them to blow up the American camps, so our soldiers had to kill them.

My dad was a medic in the army, and he would have to patch up military personnel when they were wounded. He told of sewing up the soldiers when their guts were hanging out. He had to put the guts back in and sew up the wounds. People wondered for many years why this war was even going on. So, in reference to this, my father would drink and physically and emotionally abuse my mother. I guess this was his way of trying to forget the memories of war, or maybe it was just his way of getting out his frustration, because of what he had had to do while serving. Either way, his behavior became more and more abusive as time went on.

I remember one situation between my mom and dad after he had been drinking. My brothers and I were sitting in the back seat of the car after we had left a party. Every Thursday or Friday evening, officers and their families would attend these parties at someone’s home. They would drink alcohol, play cards, and talk, while the kids played games in another room or outside, away from the adults. On this particular night, the officer of the house that we were invited to began to get loud and fight his wife in front of everybody. He hit her and threw her over the couch, while the other officers and their wives watched. When we heard the yelling and tables bumping, we ran from the back of the house to the living room and saw what was going on. We were afraid.

The other officers were not trying to stop it. My mom got upset and told my dad to prepare us to go. I don’t think he liked the fact that