HOWARDS GROVE, Wis. — Bill Klemme, an Army veteran who fought in Vietnam, flipped through pages and pages of war memories at his alma mater, Howards Grove High School.
He remembers them as if they happened yesterday.
Klemme participated in the school's Veterans Day program on Tuesday.
The students in attendance were not much older than Klemme was when he watched his brothers-in-arms die in combat.
"'Keep your eyes and ears open and your mouths shut,'" Klemme recalled being told when his boots first hit the ground. "'Because if you don't do that, you'll be going home in a body bag.'"
Klemme spent months fighting the enemy, always prepared for an average of three ambushes per day.
He showed students pages of historical documentation and photographs from his service, including images of napalm and tunnel warfare.
"If somebody tells you they're not afraid and you're not afraid, they're lying to you," Klemme said.
The veteran has struggled with PTSD for more than 50 years, learning to love and feel again through the healing process. His primary coping mechanism has been art and poetry.
"A means of expressing how I felt on the inside," Klemme explained.
He has written dozens of poems over the years for programs similar to the Howards Grove presentation, including works featuring eagles and tributes to fallen soldiers.
"The credit belongs to the man who was actually in the arena, whose hands and face are marred by dust, sweat and blood," Klemme recited from one of his pieces.
Klemme said he saw an opportunity to let people know what veterans go through during wartime, channeling his experiences in a positive way.
"We must never forget what these heroic warriors did," he said, emphasizing that those who served and died for freedom should be remembered forever in art form.
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