Vietnam Vet Writes Book Connecting Area To Vietnam War

A Pennsbury High School graduate has penned a book on the impact the Vietnam War had on Lower Bucks County.

In 2014, Terry Nau’s class of 1965 reunion committee asked him to do a head count of the veterans of the class as they prepared for their reunion of 50 years. Through careful searching, Nau identified 148 veterans, with 33 of them served in Vietnam. This research provided the inspiration that Nau used to write his second book, “We Walked Right Into It: Pennsbury High and the Vietnam War.”

This second book, published on Feb. 24, focuses on the Pennsbury community, and the fact that 15 former students of the school were killed between 1965 and 1971. Throughout the course of writing the book, Nau interviewed 25 men who made it home from Vietnam, and  the families of ten who were lost serving. The families of the last five were not in the area anymore.

Nau describes Pennsbury not just as a setting in the book or an idea, but as a character which connects the lives of all those already connected by the war.

Vietnam was a huge part of growing up in the 1960s, Nau explained. “Vietnam ran all through our lives in the ’60s. Even the ones who didn’t go had to deal with the draft.”

Getting back into his head, and the heads of other servicemen was not easy. Some interviewees told Nau that the interview was returning “haunting” memories to the surface. “I also had some memories stirred by going back and listening to others’ stories,” explained the author.

Lots of the people Nau interviewed are proud of their service now, although it was hard to be proud when they returned home. “I think it is a point of pride for people who served in Vietnam. We didn’t quite have that feeling when we came home because of the anti-war movement. We still believed in our country, right or wrong.” he said.

“[The war] wasn’t anything anyone wanted to talk about. It’s like playing on a championship team that lost the big game,” Nau said.

The book features 15 men from Pennsbury who died in the war. Nine are from Levittown, three from Fairless Hills, and three were from Yardley. The book is sorted chronologically for the most part, beginning with the first from the area to die, Lieutenant Joseph Yatsko.

For Nau, the hardest part of interviewing families left behind was asking them how they found out. According to Nau, until 1966, the most common way people were told of their loved ones’ passing was through a cab with a telegram.

Writing the book was not all bad though. “I met some remarkable people doing interviews for this book,”  Nau reflected, adding interviewing those who survived the war was the best part.

The book also focuses on problems that survivors of the war are facing today, such as problems stemming from exposure to agent orange.

“This book honors everyone who served in the Vietnam war,” Nau explained.

After returning from military service in Vietnam, Nau attended Penn State and received a degree in journalism. He worked as a sports editor in three different towns for 40 years until he retired in 2012.

Nau’s book – “We Walked Right Into It: Pennsbury High and the Vietnam War” – is only available on Amazon.