WHAT  PEOPLE  ARE  SAYING  ABOUT  “REFLECTIONS”

ILLINOIS:

Awesome!

Nellie T.

INDIANA:

There is a lot of healing in the pages and pictures of “Reflections”.

Ronald J.

How great it was to see you . . . and in God’s timing!!  The following Saturday Jim was called to conduct the funeral of a Vietnam ex-marine.  He preached a message from Psalm 23, and followed it with a passage from your book.  Also, 2 paragraphs from pp. 124-125 “The Army trained me . . .” etc. and “If you are a wounded one with a bleeding heart . . .” etc.  I heard an Amen from one of the many bikers present.  It touched hearts.  Also handed out some copies of the address page.

Rev. & Mrs. James

IOWA:

I received your book yesterday and was blown away by it!  It looks PHENOMENAL!

Carol H.

I haven’t read your whole book yet, but what I have is powerful.  Thank you for sharing your experiences.  And thank you for being a bridge for healing and reconciliation.

John W.

LOUISIANA:

I have just read Reflections and have to tell you it touched me in so many different ways.  Being 47, I missed most of the Vietnam War, but have memories of the last couple of years in the news, & can well remember the shoddy treatment of the returning vets. 

Your book can go a very long way towards healing for not only the Vets, but everyone involved in their lives.  The most wonderful thing about Reflections is that it will not only touch Vets, but it can help every-day people like me in dealing with adversity & day-to-day life.

Lisa B.

MICHIGAN:

“Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me.  Bring my soul out of prison . . .”

That’s what your book IS going to do, Bob. 

Tracy G.

OKLAHOMA:

 I just finished your book and I loved it!  It should be required reading for all Vietnam Vets and their families. 

            Your book explained several things to me.  I still do not sleep at night without the TV.  The ringing in my ears is terrible at times and overwhelms everything when it is quiet.  I now know why I hate to get wet . . .

             I used to love to hunt, but now find myself sitting around the campfire while everyone else hunts.  One of my close friends, also a Vietnam Vet, and I sit by the fire and do not hunt but rather treat it as a camping trip and a chance to ride our four wheelers.

             Anyway, I saw a lot of myself in your descriptions.  I don’t feel like I am so different anymore.

Dave M.

VIRGINIA:

Praise the Lord!!  What a fantastic masterpiece!  I do hope that you can soon find the time and energy to complete Son Of Calvary.

Please have three more copies sent to the enclosed addresses.

Florence H.

Endorsements

When I was asked to read Reflections on a Journey to War, I really didn’t want too.  Not because I didn’t think it would be a great book, but because I didn’t want to think about the year my husband was there.  That was a year of hell for me.  I would write him every day with the thought that this might be my last letter he would read.  I would have to put on a “happy face” in my letters.                                                                                                               

But as I read the book, a lot of my feelings were addressed.  No one should have to go to war, but freedom has a price.  With the Lord’s help, all God’s people can get through anything.   Thank you Pastor Bob.                                                                                              

                                                                                                    Patty S.,   Nam Vet Wife

Reflections on a Journey to War brought back many memories.  Some of my experiences were similar to those Bob shares in his book, but because I was a Grunt, many differ.  Armed with a gamut of emotions, each of us has our unique experiences.  But we all can relate to a similar Faith that brought each of us through our tours and safely home.  Most of us were numb to the reality of those left in-country to continue the fight, and to those we knew would never come home.

I ENCOURAGE YOU TO READ THIS BOOK, especially those of you who have had combat experiences.  If you returned safely home from your tour and did not believe your God had brought you there, this book can help you realize how much you have missed.  Hopefully Bob’s prayers and guidance will give you direction for the rest of your “tour” on this earth.                                                        

                                                                               John S. – Vietnam – June 69 to June 70

                                                                               CO. B, 2^nd BN, 16^th INF, 1^st INF Div.

                                                                               CO. A, 5^th BN, 12^th INF, 199^th L.I.B.

In April of 1975, tanks from North Vietnam rumbled into Saigon.  The images of South Vietnamese desperately fighting to escape through the United States Embassy, was the top news story.  However, I paid little attention; in fact I could not have cared less.  The Vietnam War meant nothing to me; I was only 3 months old.  I was part of the first post-Vietnam generation who never experienced the Vietnam War.  I grew up free from constant worry about the well-being of loved ones who were overseas in combat.  I also did not witness the social or political turmoil the Vietnam War caused in America.  In high school Vietnam was recent history with little time spent covering the conflict or the lasting effects it has today.  Growing up, my generation witnessed the demise of the Communist threat and the end of the Cold War.  To many of us, Vietnam was a country, not a war.

Today I am a Social Studies teacher in Iowa with classes of my own to educate.  In our history texts today only two pages cover the Vietnam War.  There is also no mention of the struggles that the Veterans faced after their return to U.S. soil.  Pastor Scholten’s book is an excellent insight into the personal experience of Vietnam Veterans.  It allows those who did not experience the war to “ride” in the boots of a soldier who did.   It will also put your personal trials and troubles into perspective.  From this point on whenever we cover Vietnam in class I will be including personal parts of his book into my curriculum.  Hopefully my students will realize that Vietnam is not just a country in Asia.  Hopefully they will realize that it was and still is a war for many Americans today.            

                                                                                         Mark C., Social Studies Teacher                     

Pastor Bob’s weaving of Scriptures into his feelings and experiences in Vietnam will help all who read this book.  Many Vets are unable to express what they experienced in war.  Even worse was their return to civilian life with no one to talk to or no one who understood.  This book will help them to understand some of the experiences and feelings they have.

                                                             Walter H. (SGM Retired)       

                                                             ISG in 1970-71 B Btry 29^th Arty (Searchlights ) ‘70   

                                                             HHB 4^th AW/SP BN 60^th ADA (Dusters) ‘71

During the Vietnam War, I was a civilian secretary for a college ROTC unit that sent graduates directly to the jungle. I never picked up an M16 rifle but I typed the lists of those who did . . . and I wept.  Robert Scholten’s Reflection on a Journey to War with its poignant photos, memories and encouraging Scripture offers healing for both soldiers and civilians who remember one of our nation’s most agonizing times.

                                                                                                                      Sandra A.

                                                                                                                      Author/Speaker

Although written for the combat Veteran, Rev Robert “Bob” Scholten’s honest words speak to all haunted by trauma living to simply survive.  He dares open his past that others will find the healing grace of God there.  There is peace outside the razor tape fences surrounding our “well-guarded hearts”.  God bless Reflection on a Journey to War.

                                                                                                  Rev Jack D.                                                                                                                                         Retired Air Force Chaplain

Bob’s depictions of his experiences and reactions as a soldier bring a clarity civilians would otherwise miss.  He takes us briefly, yet powerfully, through each phase, from his fear and dread of being sent to Vietnam, through his grueling and saddening experiences there, to his painful disillusionment when he returned to his own country.

It is well that we look back upon this controversial war and review what it did to the minds and souls of all of us.  Through Bob, whose position as a gunner on a Duster (open turret tank) put him in extreme and constant danger, we experience vicariously some of what he experienced first-hand.  But it is his spiritual vision of those same experiences that translates the vicarious into personal understanding and temporal into eternal.

                                                                                                Norma J.

                                                                                                Assistant Chaplain

I encourage every Vietnam Veteran to read Reflections on a Journey to war.  You will identify with much in Bob’s story.  You will smile, chuckle and possibly weep when you realize others share and understand your experiences. 

Ed Allen - President National Dusters, Quads & Searchlights Association

            A Battery, 4^th AW/SP Battalion 60^th ADA ‘DUSTERS’ 70-71