MSI Press Blog

Courage is usually described in battlefield terms — the charge forward, the split‑second decision, the willingness to risk one’s life. But for veterans exposed to Agent Orange, courage took on a different shape. It became a long, quiet practice: the courage to live with uncertainty, to face diagnoses that arrived decades after service, and to keep building a life even when the future felt fragile. 1. The Courage of Knowing What Might Come For many veterans, the first act of courage was simply absorbing the truth. Learning that a chemical they barely noticed in Vietnam could cause cancer, heart disease, neuropathy, or Parkinsonism required a kind of emotional steadiness that few people ever need to summon. It meant living with the knowledge that: bad news could arrive at any time, symptoms might appear without warning, and the body might carry a danger planted years earlier. This is not fearlessness. It is the courage of continuing anyway — of going to work, raising children, paying bi...

  Between 1962 and 1971, the U.S. military sprayed more than 19 million gallons of Agent Orange across Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos to strip away jungle cover and destroy crops. What was intended as a tactical advantage left behind a toxic inheritance. Health impacts on veterans and civilians : Exposure has been linked to cancers (non-Hodgkin lymphoma, leukemia, prostate cancer), diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and now, newly confirmed connections to rare blood cancers like myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Generational effects : In Vietnam, millions still live with disabilities and birth defects attributed to dioxin contamination. Families continue to face challenges decades after the war ended. Environmental damage : Dioxin hotspots remain across dozens of provinces, contaminating soil and water, perpetuating harm long after the spraying stopped. Advocacy and recognition : Veterans and their families have fought for decades to have these conditions recognized for care and benef...

  Coming soon! Available now on pre-order!  Nothing So Broken  - war, memoir, more. Approximate release date: August 15 -- watch for it! Book description:  In the shadow of loss, a path to healing begins. Chris Richards grew up in a small New England mill town, where life was tough and loyalty ran deep. At just 19, his world was shaken when a close friend was left permanently disabled by a devastating accident. At the same time, Chris’s father began to show troubling symptoms linked to his service in the Vietnam War—unseen wounds that would slowly unravel the man he once knew. The weight of watching two people he loved unravel under the strain of trauma and physical decline left deep scars—ones Chris carried silently into adulthood. For years, he buried his grief and fear, never imagining that one day, facing his own crisis, he would turn to their stories for strength. This powerful and moving memoir explores the enduring impact of trauma, the quiet power of resilien...