Destiny of Memories Fire and Rain (Revised 2nd Edition)
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Marcia Nichols Your book, “Fire and Rain” had a far, far greater affect on me than you’ll ever know. I’m both grateful you wrote it and astounded at how ignorant I was of what it was like to have been there, lived it and somehow remained whole, if even in pieces. It’s inexplicable.
Destiny of Memories: Fire and Rain is in facebook
Please click on the link below to hear an interview with the Author.
A Destiny of memories Author Interview
Please share this information. Click on the link below to hear David talk about his experiences:
Tamar Yonah of Israel Talk Radio interviewed David:
Second interview with Tamar Yonah
A destiny of memories: Book 1 Fire and Rain:
How do you describe a book that is gripping from the first moment you pick it up? One has to actually read it first! D. Ramati did a fabulous job of writing his own first- hand experience in Vietnam. Proudly volunteering to join the Marines, he went to the killing fields of Vietnam at a very young age. He describes in very real detail life in the jungles of Vietnam, fighting a war for what he truly believed in, Freedom! Landing in the war zone, he soon realized that the war for freedom soon turned into a battle to survive. Which he did. But freedom has a cost and he lost many comrades in a fight that would never leave him.
On a short return back to the U.S. he was taken aback by the hostility faced by the countrymen he vowed to protect: The so-called Peace movement had turned hateful and he felt betrayed by the Country that he thought would support him all the way. But his short return was more than that; it was shocking news that awaited him on his arrival…
A must read and an eye opener to what really happened in Vietnam, the effect it had on all the young soldiers that gave their lives, gave their everything; a war that people in general tend to ignore and shrug off these days. One sentence in the book really stuck out for me “ You can take the Marine out of Vietnam, but you can never take Vietnam out of the Marine.”
I am looking forward to reading part two.
By M. Verdi on 27 Nov. 2016
Format: Kindle Edition
I started reading this book with its every word carved out in pain, to takes to the very heart of the Vietnamese War. A man so broken and so dark, one wonders how he ever, stood up and returned to the war. He takes you through actual skirmishes without jargon, simply telling you how it is. The enemy sending out children with guns who killed you if you did not kill them first. To see a man beginning to scratch his way back into civilisation. The book ends with a letter left to him by Stella. The contents seem to be ominous. I look forward to Book 2 to see what the letter says.
This book is a true chronicle of what it is like to return home from war to a public that has no clue to who you are, what you feel, and how to accept you. I hope it will be of value to today’s vets who are returning. It is a long, lonely trail back to sanity.
Destiny of Memories: Fire and Rain: You could check out of Vietnam but you could never leave: Excerpt from the book: The year 1947 was also the same year that Al Capone died, the year that Jackie Robinson made history: Jackie Robinson changed everything for black Chicagoans and possibly set the stage for the struggle that lay ahead for his people. This was a year before the military integrated, seven years before Brown v. Board of Education, and eight years before Rosa Parks refused to step to the rear of a Montgomery bus.
Jackie Robinson wasn’t nudging people out of their comfort zones; he was shoving them with both hands. Some of his teammates initially refused to take the field with him, and among the Cubs as well, there was talk of a boycott.
He had served with blacks in Vietnam. Some were heroes, others were not, but all lived or died as United States Marines, and they were his brothers forever. The Marines only recognized one color: Marine Corps Green.
Now, twenty years after Robinson broke the mold, he sat in a window seat, still smelling of Vietnam. No amount of washings would ever get rid of the faint smell of death gunpowder and napalm, which was both a physical and spiritual stench. It was unusual for a Marine to be going home out of uniform, and under normal circumstance, he would be in a freshly pressed uniform, but the emergency orders that had pulled him out of the ‘Nam left no time for spit and polish. He had a short layover in Seattle where he had managed a hasty change from his jungle utilities, to ill-fitting jeans and a short-sleeved shirt too large for his shrunken frame.
Those battered jungle utilities had been more a part of him than was the city below with its sleeping hundreds of thousands; a city both unaware and uncaring that yet another Marine was coming back from hell.
They would return from Vietnam, but unfortunately, the memories would stay with them forever: You could take the marine from Vietnam but could never take Vietnam out of the marine. No one ever came back…
Now, twenty years after Robinson broke the mold, he sat in a window seat, still smelling of Vietnam. No amount of washings would ever get rid of the faint smell of death, gunpowder, and napalm, which was both a physical and spiritual stench. It was unusual for a Marine to be going home in ill-fitting civilian dress, and under normal circumstance, he would be in a freshly pressed uniform, but the emergency orders that had pulled him out of the ‘Nam left no time for spit and polish. He had a short layover in Seattle where a good Samaritan had given him some extra clothing which allowed him to change from his jungle utilities, to ill-fitting jeans and a short-sleeved shirt too large for his shrunken frame. Those battered jungle utilities had been more a part of him than was the city below with its sleeping hundreds of thousands; a city both unaware and uncaring that yet another Marine was coming back from hell. The “lucky ones” would return, but unfortunately, the memories of Vietnam would stay with them forever.
For more hours than he could count, he had been fighting to stay awake, but kept drowsing into a limbo, which was both part dream and also part memory. He dozed for a moment and then snapped awake as he felt cold waves of fear fueling his body with a rush of adrenalin; causing him to react automatically with the instincts developed in Vietnam …instantly wary and alert. He had learned on patrol to be suspicious of anything different; anything even slightly out of place and here, in “The World”, everything was out of place, and his fear and caution made him as dangerous as he would be on patrol.
He felt naked without his rifle. How could he defend himself? The adrenaline rushes continued, and after each attack subsided, he clung to the reality that he was home now. This was the United States. He was back in “The World”. There were no enemies here. Nevertheless, even here, a part of his mind and soul remained in Vietnam, ten thousand miles away, where even in the insanity of war, there yet remained a familiarity of belonging to something that he desperately refused to let go. Only now, he realized for the first time what his old gunnery sergeant had told him was stark truth and reality; ‘you can take the Marine out of Vietnam, but you can never take Vietnam out of the Marine’.
As he saw his reflection in the port window, the memories reached out and held him like a jealous lover until his reflection dissolved into other scenes, and he closed his eyes and slipped back into the familiar and brutally beautiful landscapes of Vietnam.
Happy Independence Day: Words to Remember
Publication date: 7 July 2016 by Black Rose
Available for sale online at Amazon
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ramatisite 
Thanks for your support
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Very insightful. Some are still living the nightmare of Vietnam.
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Thank you. The publication date for this book will be July 7
2016
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No one ever really left Vietnam. The release date for the book is now 7 July.
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You have a lot of support my brother. The only ones that can, or want to understand, are our brother’s that were there. As a brother Marine, I will always have your six, no matter what. Your spot on when you say;
“You can take the Marine pout of Vietnam, but you will NEVER take Vietnam out of the Marine”
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Thank you. Those words mean the world to me Bro.
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So true
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I would love to read your book. My husband and I l♡ve Barnes and Noble bookstore. Thanks to all of you soldiers. All the iroy, false hippy liberal comments you endured. Those who called our Vietnam war vets babykillers, need to see where the killers really ARE and to WHOM ARE the real BABY KILLERS, is THE USA RUN PROGRESSIVE GOVERNMENT. God bless you thanks to you and all of our soldiers who fought a war, and were treated badly by our own countrymen &women. .They should be ashamed and hopefully apologized for their truly, unappreciative actions, toward our Vietnam Veterans ♡♡♡
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I served with LIMA 3/1. 13 Major OPS and some country fairs. Wounded 3 times and sent to Okinawa for recoup for 3 months and then put on a slow ship to San Diego. Damned near a month later had to wait for 2 days to disembark. We were told protesters were on the docks. Walked around Oceanside for a couple of days and yes it was different, not like the Oceanside I remembered. I decided to take a slow bus ride home, a small farming community in South Texas, population less than 3K at the time. Before I bought my ticket home I walked into a Pawn Shop and bought a 9mm Taurus, with it stuck under my uniform blouse fully loaded for the trip home. Greyhound afforded me enough time to myself to try to get adjusted and relax a bit. Even with a bus full of people I was alone! No one spoke to me nor asked anything.
Greyhound made several stops along the way, sleepy small towns and a few not so large cities along the way.
Arrived 36 hours later at 1:30 am . The lights were out and the sidewalks rolled up! Sat there till sun up trying to make sense of where I’d been and what the hell for and no hurry to get home.
Home was the same as it was when I’d volunteered in ’63. I got a hand shake from Dad and a hug from Mom. Everyone seemed happy to see me and glad I was home but, no one asked and I didn’t tell. I was alone!
I didn’t get to see people protesting and spitting and never got called a baby killer but I never felt like a winner. Maybe it’s because no one validated me, if that makes any sense.
I know how it is, I go back to Vietnam every day… I’m there now!
I have managed to regroup and adapt when so many of us couldn’t ’till they completed their journey in this system of things.
Semper-Fi…………Do or die!
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Thanks
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All we ever wanted was for America to love us as much as we loved her.
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I wish to see you accomplished and successful!
You deserve the best!
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As do you!
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Proud to know you, David.
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And I am proud to know you Richard
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David Ramati personifies the term “gentleman warrior”.
An uncommon man, an uncommon author.
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Thank you Brother
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Thanks Brother
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I was a very young impressionable kid when my brother returned from Vietnam. I read his story I his journals which he used as therapy. You and he brought awareness and great empathy upon my soul to yours. I love you guys! If I could take your pain away…..God bless you and from a jarhead kid….SEMPER FI! Excellent book of your life and the TRUTH!
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I thank you. If you could go to amazon.com D. Ramati A destiny of memories click on customer review and write a review it would help me to reach other people.
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