Love Held Hostage

They were once raw-edged killers in the green hell of ‘Nam. Now they are middle-aged men searching for answers to mysteries that occurred in the darkness of the Vietnam War. The daily nightmares of fallen comrades, ambushes gone awry, and mangled bodies have taken their toll on the men from the second squad. They are emotionally drained and mentally defeated, until the squad reunites in Key West, and fights the psychological battle of their lives like the well-oiled, fighting machine they once were. This is an adventure story about sunken treasures, personal tragedies, triumphs, laughter, tears, dreams, personal growth, and most of all, friendship, which Vietnam was all about.

Lieutenant jim Simmen was a Mechanized infantry platoon leader in Vietnam in 1968. He served with the 1st Infantry Division and the 9th Infantry Division. . In 2001, he was diagnosed with PTSD by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs . He attended a thirteen week PTSD program at the VA hospital in Miami. Some of the stories in the novel are personal and others are heresay. He grew up in California and attended the University of California at Berkeley.