Benji Cole of CBS Radio recently interviewed Fred W. Kirkpatrick, author of “Why Didn’t I Die: A Memoir of PTSD.” They discussed about the author’s message and inspiration for writing this masterpiece.
People of Distinction is one of the most extensive and wide-ranging radio shows in the United States. Hosted by Benji Cole and Al Cole from CBS Radio, People of Distinction is the right fit for authors who want to increase their exposure to readers. The radio program airs on Apple’s iTunes Radio Network (Professional News/Talk), featuring CBS Radio, Fox News, NPR, and C-Span.
For writers looking to expand their readership, People of Distinction—hosted by Benji Cole, the son of Al Cole—is the perfect venue. The guest authors will be interviewed by Los Angeles-based actor and filmmaker Benji Cole.
“Why Didn’t I Die: A Memoir of PTSD” is the author’s legacy for forty years as he suffered from something that was not defined until 1980 as PTSD, a full twelve years after he left Vietnam.
This compelling memoir is his story of his struggles. The author hopes that his story helps families dealing with PTSD or complex PTSD to know what PTSD is and help them heal and learn how to deal with and cope with PTSD.
Mihir Shah of the US Review of Books highly praised this masterpiece, to wit, “The author also delves into being raised in Cleveland, attending a Catholic school, and even being bullied by his peers who made fun of the immense age gap between his father—who had also served—and his mother. As in life, every story has that sliver of light, of hope, and for Kirkpatrick, he finds it in friendship. His detailing of his diverse friend group is refreshing and heartwarming all at the same time. Whether they were Irish, Italian, Ukrainian, Polish, or Slovenian, each of the friends literally had their own unique background and upbringing. Still, they fit together almost seamlessly. Overall, Kirkpatrick’s work is a raw, genuine outpouring of his life journey, one that is living proof that PTSD should not be ignored but rather nurtured and treated with timely care.”
Fred Kirkpatrick served with the famed First Infantry’s Black Lions as a combat infantryman in Vietnam in 1967.
He was exposed to Agent Orange and struggled to try and understand what PTSD was doing to his life.
He writes about those struggles as a new author in his memoir of PTSD, “Why Didn’t I Die?”
In a strange twist of irony, his father, nearly fifty years earlier, was exposed to lethal gas in World War I as a combat infantryman with the 4th Division in France.
His father would later be found to be suffering from “shell shock,” which would now be regarded as a form of PTSD.
And Fred has been using his considerable investigative skills to write a second book about his ancestors called “My Great, Great, Aunt (s).”
Even though he was red-lined as a C-student in grade school by Catholic nuns and graduated at the bottom of his high school class, he was able to focus his PTSD struggles on studying and, in later years, was able to earn two undergraduate college degrees and a master’s degree.
Click on the link below to listen to the full interview: