Doctor to talk to vets about post traumatic stress

At 6 p.m., the public at large is invited to attend a community dinner served by the Mid-Columbia Unitarian Universalist Youth Group.

The dinner is a fundraising project for the MCUUF Youth community service project.

At 7, Dr. Fisher will lead a public discussion on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and how communities can help those returning from the battle grounds.

On Sunday, Nov. 16, Dr. Fisher will speak to the Mid-Columbia Unitarian Universalist Fellowship starting at 10a.m. at the Rockford Grange, 4250 Barrett Dr. in Hood River.

Dr. Fisher lives in Murrells Inlet, S.C., and is a Vietnam veteran. He currently serves as the coordinator for the Colorado/Southwest Soldier's Heart Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to creating veterans' safe-return programs throughout the country. He will be discussing and leading inquiry into the trauma affecting returning veterans and what our communities can do to help.

Dr. Fisher served in the U.S. Army with the 4th Infantry Division, Viet Nam, in 1968. He discovered one of his most successful healing therapies to be writing. He traveled back to the land of his nightmares and is a self-proclaimed Vietnam historian. After completing his second novel and two more trips to Southeast Asia, he became a National speaker for the Soldier's Heart Foundation, based on the writings of Dr. Ed Tick: War and the Soul.

In 1968, after four months of "Basic Training" and learning the operations of 105 howitzers, Fisher was shipped to Vietnam. His limited college credits offered an opportunity to serve with Intelligence Operations with the 4/42 Artillery Battalion. However, the need for combatants put him further forward, eventually to operate a PRC-25 radio for an artillery forward observer. One year later, he returned home appalled, angry and unbeknownst to himself, stripped of his own identity. The sport of surfing and later discovering his professional desire in chiropractic, kept his shattered perspectives on life "alive."

After two marriages, two children, two psychologists, the writing of two books and two trips back to the land of his nightmares (Viet Nam), he began to wonder if he would ever be able to relax. In his search for "self," he began to understand his experiences through counseling, writing and travel.

However, it was his acquaintance with Dr. Ed Tick, that changed his life in immeasurable ways. Come hear his story.