Home Page    Warning!    Toolbar    Blues Music    Blues Mp3    Blues Video    Blues Lyrics    Jazz Lyrics    Rock Lyrics    Lucky Mojo    Blues Jam    Blues Guitar    Buy Guitars    Guitar Hero    Blues Harp    Concert Mp3    Guitar TAB    Music Books    Blues Blog       Search Site    Contact Us Blues Improv Bluesmen Eric Capton ZZ TOP Band Albert Collins Jimi Hendrix Bonamassa John Lee Hooker Allman Brothers Lynyrd Skynyrd Santana Chuck Berry The Beatles R. Gallagher Freddie King B. Springsteen Rolling Stones Johnny winter Buddy Guy Bonnie Raitt	And they shall beat their swords into Guitars Lean to Play 5 minute Guitar Solo! Blues Licks * Blues Chords Guitar Guru * Blues Riffs Bass Guitar * Blues Jam Trax Sarge Lintecum Combat Tested Blues.. for Peace How I advanced my healing from the Vietnam War by writing and singing the blues.. I thought it might be helpful if I explained how I brought my life back from the deep pit of PTSD. (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) A disorder brought on by too much combat.) I was unable to go to group therapy sessions because hearing the sad stories of each veteran coming around the circle towards me would so seriously increase my depression that I would have to leave. In fact, just going to the VA Hospital for appointments would increase my symptoms so much that I would often have to turn around and go home because I couldn't even enter the building. However, when I was fighting for my service-connected PTSD compensation, I would have to be hospitalized for thirty days at a time, which really backed up my healing process. So I had to figure out something on my own. I started writing things down that I couldn't even talk about to my wife and we had been married for nineteen years at that time. To my surprise, my writing always came out in poetry form and then I would convert it into the blues, but the most amazing thing was that I would feel some measure of relief just by getting my Nam experiences down on paper. I had no idea this would lead to a full blown career, but that's another story. At any rate, writing is where my healing began. However, every day of my life was still controlled by my PTSD. So I tried to use the old sixties method of going inside your own head and trying to fix things, but this nearly resulted in my head exploding! I don?t know where it came from or when it hit me, but one day I said, "Sarge, look around you and see how many people could use help worse than you", so I quit thinking of myself and started helping others. This is when my healing really began to advance. When I found out how good it made me feel to hand a few dollars to a homeless person, often a veteran themselves, I began to realize what the basic problem of PTSD is and that is a shattered self-image. Because I carried the M-79 grenade launcher in Nam, (big explosion when the bullet hit), I found that most of the terrible names people called us when we got home were true about me. When I realized that I was suffering from a badly shattered self-image from all of the things I'd done in the line of duty in Vietnam, but that I could rebuild my self- image by helping others, I got creative and thought of a lot of different ways to help those folks who were in worse shape than me. My "Vietnam Blues" has become very popular and I now have a new and happy life thanks to my being touched by the blues. By Sarge Lintecum Blues Guitar | Blues Lyrics | Blues Mp3 | Blues Concerts | Blues Video Guitar TAB | Concert Mp3 | Blues Music | Blues News | Allman Bros. Eric Clapton | BB King | Jimi Hendrix | Albert Collins | SRV | ZZ TOP © 1998-2005 Blues for Peace Corporation. All rights reserved.	Blues News Eric Clapton Jimi Hendrix Allman Brothers SRV Albert Collins