Wearing Every Uniform and Healing
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Charlotte Ayers wore the uniforms of three different services during her 89 years, and recalls the challenges of her U.S. Marine Corps husband’s emotional healing after he returned from Vietnam. The healing has prompted Charlotte to urge veterans of all ages to seek help when it’s needed. She was raised in Neillsville, WI, and lives in Beaufort, S.C. Charlotte occasionally makes her way back to Wisconsin for visits with her family, and enjoys visits to The Highground Veterans Memorial park near Neillsville. 
Eric Chandler is the author of Kekekabic (Finishing Line Press, 2022) and Hugging This Rock (Middle West Press, 2017). His writing has appeared in Northern Wilds, Grey Sparrow Journal, The Talking Stick, Sleet Magazine, O-Dark-Thirty, Line of Advance, Collateral, The Deadly Writers Patrol, PANK, The Wrath-Bearing Tree, Consequence Magazine, and Columbia Journal. Chandler was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2014 for creative nonfiction. He’s a three-time winner of the Col. Darron L. Wright Award for poetry. Chandler is also a US Air Force veteran of both the active duty and the Minnesota Air National Guard. He flew 145 combat missions and over 3000 hours in the F-16. He’s happiest when he’s on a trail in Duluth with his wife, two children, and faithful dog, Leo.
Vietnam veteran Doug Bradley is an expert on the way music affects service personnel during their active duty tours, during their transitions to civilian life, and beyond. He and UW-Madison Professor Craig Werner — with whom Doug taught a Vietnam War class at the university — interviewed about 300 Vietnam veterans to hear music-related stories, which they compiled into the book, “We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War.” Rolling Stone magazine named their book America’s top music book of 2015. He also authored DEROS Vietnam: Dispatches from the Air-Conditioned Jungle” and “Who’ll Stop the Rain: Respect, Remembrance, and Reconciliation in Post-Vietnam America.” Doug is part of the UW-Madison Badger Talks program.
Chris Pettis is executive director of The Highground Veterans’ Memorial Park near Neillsville, WI. Chris discusses how veterans and their families stories of transition and healing at The Highground, and how he and The Highground’s staff and volunteers handle the emotions of those stories. He joined the U.S. Marine Corps at age 17 and in 2014 retired as a master sergeant after 23 years of service.
Bonnie Pettis is the daughter of a Navy Vietnam Veteran, a Marine Veteran sister, wife (of 22 years), mother and mother-in-law. She served the family home-front with an infant and a toddler for 2 of the 3
Former Army medic Chris Swift has shared several podcasts with us. You will find his experiences leading up to this Friday August 12 episode on the podcast episode page of our webpage.