User talk:Clydehoch/sandbox

Clyde Hoch: Author/Speaker

Clyde Hoch, an award winning author, speaker, Staff Sargent, humble artist and lifelong factory worker was born in 1954 in a generationally owned home that he currently still lives in.

Enlisting in the Marine Corps in High School, three days after graduation he left his hometown for Parris Island, South Carolina for his first taste of Marine Corps life at Boot Camp.

After boot camp and infantry training he was sent to 2nd Tank Battalion in North Carolina. Clyde spent six months in the Mediterranean with the fleet of ships and a battalion of Marines that the United States houses in the Mediterranean Sea at all times. He stayed with the tanks during his time there. He returned to Camp Lejeune, NC, for six months and returned to the Mediterranean for another six months. After returning he spent some times as a brig guard before being sent to Vietnam.

Clyde arrived in Vietnam in the middle of Tet of 1968 and returned home after Tet of 1969. These were the years of the heaviest fighting of the war. Clyde was a sergeant when he arrived and was immediately made a tank commander.

The tank he commanded struck a large land mine. He was knocked unconscious and suffered hearing loss. His tank and crew were hit by American artillery and abandoned on the battle field.

Clyde describes his hardest battle of Vietnam as coming home to America from the war. He felt more comfortable at war than in his own country.

He became a brick layer for many years before settling on a career in printing.

When an intriguing elderly neighbor told Clyde a story about his life, he felt despair knowing that when his neighbor was gone, so too, was his story.

Clyde vowed that would not be his life. Though he spoke very little of his experiences in Vietnam throughout his life, he decided if he didn't feel comfortable to "talk" about it, he would write about it.

His first book "Tracks: Memoirs of a Vietnam Veteran" is about his military experience. He was selected as one of fifty great writers you should be reading.

His second, "A Tribute to Tankers" has a short description of a type of tank used in combat and follows with stories of people who served in that type of tank in combat, starting with WWI and through Iraq.

His third book, "B.A.R. Man Browning Automatic Rifle Man" is about a man who fought in the Korean War. He does some very amazing things until he is wounded by American planes. Captured by the Chinese and forced to march 200 miles with no medical attention and little food, he was held for two and a half years, only to be released into a country that found little gratitude for his willingness to defend them.

"A Man Down" a bronze medal in international awards, is Clyde's fourth book. It begins with a story of a childhood friend who is killed in Vietnam trying to save someone. Another friend was killed in a fire/explosion in Vietnam. Another young man was killed in a mine explosion in Afghanistan. The final story is about a young man in the Marine Corps who according to NCIS, took his own life.

Suicides in 2012 outpaced combat deaths in the military. Clyde's intent is to shed light on the experiences of men and women serving their country and wanting to see more of their country serving them in return.

All of his military book profits are donated to veterans groups. He writes because he feels the sacrifices of great men should be remembered for generations.

His fifth book "Albion" is his first fiction work. The book is a compilation of seven short stories from early humans, to a great English Expedition, a boy in an automobile accident, and a near death experience. The reader gets to decide which of the seven stories is true. And, yes, one is non-ficton.

His sixth book shares his experiences with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. It is intended to help veterans and family members of veterans understand themselves and how to live with the effects of PTSD.

A young Chinese girl who fled China during the communist takeover is the center story of his seventh book. Her family arrived in Vietnam as refugees caught in the Vietnam War. Raised by an abusive mother, she eventually comes to the United States to understand the essence of patriotism and unwinds old familial patterns by becoming the mother she wished she'd had.

After retiring he set off to help Veterans.

He became a volunteer veterans mentor, is a board member and facilities director for Vets for Vets, a board member of Rolling Thunder Chapter 8 PA, and the founder of Veterans Brotherhood.

He is producing a full length documentary on talks called "Tanks: A Century of Dominating the Battlefield" to educate the public on history of tanks in America. He felt compelled to preserve the reality of tanks in writing and video because he feels, much like the stories of his neighbor died with his body, that soon enough, tanks will be obsolete. As a part of him, he'd like to preserve them.

www.clydehoch.com