FreedomRiders  

Hartford native and Plainville resident, John Puzzo, a veteran of the Vietnam War and the Iraq War, will be our featured guest on the show Sunday, December 6th at 2PM, to talk about his two new books - K/75th Rangers, ‘The Highlanders’ In the Vietnam War Vietnam And Hollywood. The books were published this year. Puzzo was with the Army Rangers in Viet Nam in 1970. Their long range mission was to develop battlefield intelligence at the division level and conduct lightning, violent raids against the North Vietnamese Army. To give readers the big picture Puzzo includes in his book on the Rangers the origins of the Ho Chi Minh trail and the larger wartime environment that takes account of the American anti-war movement. In "Vietnam and Hollywood" Puzzo writes, "The impact Hollywood has had on shaping American opinion of the Vietnam War and the veteran cannot be downplayed. It is significant, corrosive, beyond truth, shameful, insulting, and not accidental," said Puzzo, "and perhaps more than any other medium contributed to the cultural memory of the war - a pattern of one-dimensional, selective bias and negative stereotyping. I am hoping to change that one reader at a time." John is a graduate of the University of Connecticut and attended Yale University, Boston University, the Art Institute of Boston, the Sorbonne in Paris, the University of the Americas in South America, and several private language schools. 34 years after Viet Nam John went to Iraq as a security specialist and Counter Terrorism Operator with the Department of Defense where he served three tours between 2004-2005. Today he is an investment advisor and insurance broker to families and businesses in Connecticut and Florida. John Puzzo, 75 Williams Street, Plainville, CT 06062, 860.351.5186