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BY MICHAEL KEATING
Sometimes while serving in Iraq, Jason Mouret would be drenched
in sweat, fear clinging to him like his clothes. He would
calm himself by thinking about the advice he had been given
by someone who had seen it all, years ago.
Amid the terror
and the tedium and the constant confusion, he heard a voice
that gave him insight and suggested alternate courses of
action. And when the action started and the battle raged,
he had a friend and elder brother-in-arms who whispered,
Be brave, Be strong.
This counsel and comfort came from letters
from home, from Louisiana. At first, Mouret said, “it
was a shock. My commanders looked at me like, ‘What’s
up?’” The
letters were stamped “inmate correspondence.” They
were mailed from the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola.
Bill
Kissinger served at Udupai, Thailand, and at Cam Ranh Bay
in 1970-71 with the U.S. Air Force. For the past 19 years,
he has been serving time at Angola. He’s a founder
and the chair of Camp F VETS and president of VVA Chapter
689.
“I would have liked to have had the support and encouragement
of someone besides family members when I served during Vietnam,” Kissinger
said. “The process of getting to know someone, who
shows that he genuinely cares about the serving soldier and
supports him, provides an emotional and spiritual uplifting
to both the soldier and the person writing him.”
Kissinger
approached Allen Manuel, VVA Region 7 Director and a long-time
mentor to veterans incarcerated at Angola. Manuel said the
plan was straightforward: Kissinger wanted to write to someone
in Iraq in order to “keep him from
going wrong.” Kissinger, Manuel said, “didn’t
want someone else to get in the same jam” he had gotten
into.
Manuel thought it over and then approached Mouret’s
father about the idea. He saw no harm in it, so he gave Manuel
his son’s address.
“Bill wrote a lot of letters,” Manuel said.
“Bill wrote a lot,” Mouret agreed. His unit was
involved in combat and he was thankful for Kissinger’s
counsel. “Having someone who had gone through combat
was a relief,” he said. “It helped to know that
help was there waiting.”
When Mouret was injured, “those
were some rough times.” But
Kissinger helped, he said, to “keep me straight.” Kissinger
talked about the importance of clarity and encouraged the
young soldier to steer clear of drugs and alcohol.
“I told him,” Kissinger said, “that when
he came home—and that I knew he would come home—he
had to make choices, and that many, many people, including
myself, were hoping for him to make the right choices. And
that we were ready to help him make them and support him.”
Mouret
said Kissinger warned him that coming home would be “a
tough transition.” Kissinger, he said, also warned
him “what roads not to go down when I got home.”
“I wanted to make sure,” Kissinger said, “that
another young man, faced with the mental and emotional damage
that combat causes, did not make the same mistakes that I
made. I watched my friends going crazy when they came home,
and I thought, ‘It won’t happen to me.’ I
couldn’t see myself clearly through the fog of alcohol
and drugs. I didn’t see my life falling apart.”
“I didn’t fit in when I came back,” Mouret
said. He felt like a stranger, even to his wife and daughter.
But Kissinger had told him that everything would be different
and he was right. Kissinger also warned him against the easy
comfort of drugs and alcohol.
“He told it exactly,” Mouret said. “He
hit the nail on the head.”
Two weeks after he returned
from his 14-month tour in Iraq, Mouret and his wife, Jessica,
drove from their home in Opelousas, Louisiana, to the Angola
Penitentiary to meet with Kissinger and to be the guests
of honor at a Camp F VETS “Passing
the Torch” banquet.
“This is my brother,” Kissinger told the assembled
crowd. “I wanted to give Jason the welcome home that
we, as Vietnam veterans, never received.” The Angola
veterans also presented their guests with gifts.
“Kissinger had another veteran make a belt buckle out
of my combat medal and a Purple Heart,” Mouret said. “A
plaque was given to my wife for standing by me and our country.” Allen
Manuel received the Distinguished Service Award for his long
service to veterans incarcerated programs in Louisiana.
The
months have slid by since that Veterans Day banquet at Angola,
and Mouret’s life has become preoccupied with
the concerns of a young father, husband, and provider. His
friendship with Kissinger, however, remains rock solid.
“We still send letters about twice a month,” Mouret
said. But the letters no longer offer encouragement in the
face of battle. “I’m learning politics, and I’m
learning about Veterans of Modern Warfare.
“Bill’s hooked me up with lots of people, and
he’s given me enormous knowledge about working within
the VA system,” Mouret said. “It’s important
for me to pass this knowledge on to others.”
VVA
Region 7 Director Allen Manuel can be reached at amanuel@vva.org
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©2006-
2011, Vietnam Veterans of America. All Rights Reserved. 8719 Colesville Road, Suite 100, Silver Spring, MD 20910