Robert Howard II was four years old when an American commander in Vietnam wrote him a letter telling him his father had died bravely in battle. The boy's father had been a hometown sports hero, and the son grew up trying to emulate a man he never really knew.
As an adolescent, Robert II turned bitter and self-destructive, using illegal drugs to ease the pain and anger he blamed on having lost the hero father who left only a shadow that seemed to follow the young man everywhere. The boy was destined for disaster. In fact, a drug-induced seizure nearly killed him two days shy of the twentieth anniversary of his father's death on Hamburger Hill.
The angry young man, however, discovered he wasn't alone, that thousands of people his age whose fathers had died in war had gathered in a group called Sons and Daughters In Touch to share their grief and sense of loss. In a determined turnaround, Robert Howard II conquered his addiction, got his own family life squared away and became a respected member of his community. His story and that of the commander who wrote him the letter--and has struggled for years with PTSD--are told in The Price They Paid: Enduring Wounds of War. The book about the members of an air cavalry troop that flew into the most intensive helicopter warfare ever and how that experience has dogged them ever since, tells the Robert Howard II story as an example of war's lasting effect, not only on the warriors but on their families and others who struggle to understand what happened to their heroes.
Robert Howard II's recovery and transformation have become an inspirational story for young people in his hometown of Norwich, Connecticut. The local Lions Club recently voted to purchase copies of the book and distribute them to every public and parochial elementary, middle and high school in Norwich and the nearby town of Sprague, and to Saint Bernard School, Robert Howard II's alma mater. The story was carried by The Day, a regional newspaper and online site that covers eastern Connecticut.