Timothy Caldwell Helps Create a Community for Veterans
Timothy Caldwell is a Vietnam Veteran, a father, an author, a Professor of Music at Central Michigan University for over 35 years. He is a noted critic of the government’s treatment of troops returning from Iraq, Afghanistan, and other wars. Caldwell has appeared on radio stations throughout the country discussing ways in which these soldiers can reacclimate themselves back into their former lives. He has created a community for veterans who have kept all that they have experienced and seen locked inside themselves. He wants to help them to find the keys to opening up and living their lives again.
In 1969, Caldwell was looking forward to his bright future and new career in a teaching position at the University of Dubuque (Iowa). He had not foreseen war in his future plans. However as fate would have it, his exemption papers were never sent to the government. Caldwell was forced to give up the teaching position and was then drafted and sent to Vietnam. He served in the U.S. Army from 1969 to 1972 where his life would be forever changed. In the Army, he was trained to be a chaplain’s assistant. In 1970, he was sent to Vietnam, the tour of duty that inspired the creation of his novel, “The Chaplain’s Assistant: God, Country, and Vietnam.” This fictionalized memoir is based on true occurrences and events that happened during Caldwell’s time spent in Vietnam, “Almost everything that happens in the book happened – just not necessarily to me.” In 2009 his book received the honor of being a finalist in the Military Fiction category of the Ellen Reid National Indie Excellence Book Awards. This summer Caldwell will be speaking to the Wounded Warriors Project (WWP) at the Chicago Air & Water show that takes place in August. The WWP provides programs and services to severely injured service members during the time between active duty and transition to civilian life.
On his website http://www.thechaplainsassistant.com, he has created an online forum under the community section where veterans can come to discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly about their experiences as a soldier. Friends and families of soldiers, whether they were in Korea or Afghanistan, or any of the wars in between are welcome to participate in the community. He wants to provide a safe place and to help raise awareness that post traumatic stress disorder is a serious and real disease.
For more info visit http://www.thechaplainsassistant.com. He is also available to speak at community and veteran functions, and is available for interviews as well. Please contact Natalie@dreamtownmedia.com or Melissa@dreamtownmedia.com for further information.