This week, we present the second part of our interview with David A. Crum. David, a former Navy chaplain and pastor, describes his Vietnam War experiences in his self-published book The Far-Away Dream.
You can read the first part of our discussion here.
David, what inspired you to write The Far-Away Dream? How long did it take you to finish it?
In 1982, I became a Navy chaplain. My first assignment was to the Infantry Training School of the U. S. Marines at Camp Pendleton, California. Once again, I was with the Marine infantry. Knowing I had been a combat Marine, the executive officer of ITS encouraged me to speak of my experiences to the young Marines. Until then, I had not spoken much about what I had experienced, but I began to tell my “combat stories” and I’ve been speaking about them ever since.
In recent years, I would hear my children repeat my stories, only they never seemed to get “the facts” straight. I decided to write them down. My son Benjamin thought my account should be published, and he gave me a contract with AuthorHouse as a gift. Once I had the contract, I wrote the book in less than a year.
What’s the main message you’d like to convey to readers through your book?
My personal experience in Vietnam is really a story of how my faith in Jesus Christ deepened, and how the Lord fashioned me into the man I am today–a man who is responsible for all the wrong I have done, while God is to be praised for all the good that has come to me. That includes survival through the deadly horror of Hue (Vietnam) and having a mine explode below me a couple of months later. For many, Vietnam memories are more like nightmares. For me, they are more like a far-away dream.
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We’ll be back next week with the conclusion of our interview with David A. Crum. His book, The Far-Away Dream, is available at Amazon and the AuthorHouse Bookstore. For more information about David and his book, check out his Facebook page.
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