On November 12, 2007 Steve wrote:

My two years (and two summer schools ) at The Citadel were bitter sweet.  I enjoyed the military system and did well with it, but academically, I found most of my classes to be stultifying, and did poorly.  On balance, the “Alcatraz on the Ashley” effect proved more powerful than the positives of Charleston and the Corps.  I moved on to a college in New Hampshire, with girlfriends and parties replacing Friday parades , SMIs and weekend confinements.

However, by 1967, the Vietnam War was in full swing and my desire to do military things continued to burn strongly within me.  I enlisted in the US Army.

After a short tour in Germany with the 3rd Armored Cav, I went to OCS and was commissioned an infantry 2LT on July 5, 1968.  After completing Airborne and Ranger  schools, I became an instructor in the Ranger Department, there at Fort Benning.

In early ’69, I joined the 9th Infantry Division in Vietnam, serving with 2/39 Inf and 6/31 Inf, with the latter commanding the battalion recon platoon.  I was hit a couple of times, but on Nov 6, ’69, I was very severely wounded, including total and permanent blindness.

I was hospitalized for 19 months, during which I married Susan, was retired as a captain, and then returned to school, the University of Connecticut (a story depicted in my book “Jungle in Black”).  I graduated magna cum laude in ’74, following that with an MA also at UCONN.  I then worked as a counseling psychologist until moving to Ireland in ’76, where I worked on my dissertation as a grad assistant (to remain unfinished as we and our six children moved to Germany in ’82 – to work for the US Army as a civilian.  We returned to the States (New Hampshire) in 1990, where I joined a social services nonprofit, until taking on a position with the Federal Government in Virginia in 2001.

In June of ’07, I returned to the US Army, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the very place where I’d spent so long as a patient.  I am now the Director, Soldier and Family Assistance Center.

Susan and I continue to live in Arlington, Virginia, and another book on Vietnam will soon be published.

Steve Maguire
The Bella Vista - 1805
1211 South Eads Street
Arlington, VA  22202

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