Interview: Writer James J. Alonzo

James J. Alonzo is a Viet Nam Combat Veteran, Deputy Sheriff, Private Investigator, Bail Enforcement Agent, retired Buddhist Priest, Thomasine Priest, married since 1966. 100% Disabled Veteran due to Agent orange onset illnesses. He is also a writer with numerous on line articles and seeking a publisher for a upcoming book.

Mr. Alonzo took some time to speak to BroadwayWorld.Com

BBW: Let's start with your childhood. Where did you grow up? What was it like?

JJA: I grew up in the ghetto known as the fruit belt.

BBW: You are a Viet Nam Combat Veteran. Please talk about it. How does it compare to the several

Hollywood movies about Viet Nam?

JJA: Viet nam does not compare to the movies, most of the movies I have seen are inaccurate and push the concept we were drug users and baby killers. There is not one ww2 movie that makes the soldier look bad.

BBW: What was the after the Viet Nam experience? Did you have a family to go back to or did

you start one when you came back?

JJA: I left for Viet nam at 18 years old married and a baby on the way.

BBW: Was the working world open to a Viet Nam veteran?

JJA: I spent two tours there in Asia, by the time I got back I was wired very tight, and suffered from PTSD. I was a squad leader and responsible for 10 lives. Starting at 18 till I left.

When I got back finding a job was difficult because of hollywoods denigration of the nam soldier. I was told by the Goverment personnel office, I was better off saying I was in jail, then say I was in Viet nam. Eventually I got into law enforcement.

BBW: What were the other jobs you've held before disability?

JJA: Store detective, deputy sheriff, private investigator, Texas state investigator, skip tracer, bail enforcement agent, Director of security and fire safety at Tonawanda coke, and Donner -Hanna Coke corporations.

BBW: How long have you been writing?

JJA: I have been writing since the PTS D counselor sold me on the idea in 1986.

BBW: Describe James J. Alonzo's writing style?

JJA: Non-fiction and fiction, with humor and reality.

BBW: When you write do you write for yourself or for an audience?

JJA: Originally for myself, however I like to see other people enjoy my writings.

BBW: What do you want people to get out of your writing? Do you have a book written?

New books can sometimes be a hard sell.

What would you like the readers to know about this book while you seek a publisher?

JJA: I ghostwrite a book for a religious fellow, I have had published articles on veterans issues on the net. Presently I have 3 manuscripts written; Viet nam, law enforcement, and a book about a man who thought he was Howard Hughes of WNY, A very ruthless man who read the book THE PRINCE by Macheovelli.

The Viet nam book is not a hero type book but an everyday experience book. The police book is the humorist stories of police work

AN EXAMPLE OF MR. ALONZO'S WORK:

A Conversation In The Viet Nam War

(C) James J Alonzo

As a squad leader there were times i had to check on the guard details at base camp. For the past few days whenever I had to go down to the perimeter at night, i would pass by him, which in it's self was unnerving.

He was always at the same place, leaning against the same pile of sandbags. Whenever i saw him, my first reaction was a fear, an apprehension of the unknown.

Part of me didn't want to deal with him; however part of me felt that if i got to know him a little better, the fear would go away.

Throughout my life I had been taught that there was nothing to fear from people like him. But still, I've always had misgivings of people like him. I knew that overcoming those feelings would be well worth the effort. There were too many of his kind around to let my fear and prejudice rule me.

That night was a hot choking humid night, and the mosquitoes were hungry, the jungle outside the perimeter was pitch black. This particular night I walked up and sat down beside him like I'd known him for years. I felt sure he wouldn't mind, i could see he didn't to mind the heat or the mosquitoes.

We looked at each other for a while and then I sort of struck up a conversation. I wanted him to know the reason I'd singled him out was because, in my ignorance he scared me, and I always made it a point to face my fears.

After i had spent a little time with him, I feel some empathy with him. I knew that before my tour in Vietnam was over, we might have a lot more in common than we did now but I hoped not.

Knowing that part of his life was a story similar to my own, there was no reason that in another time or place we could of been friends. I spoke to him about his life and I was assured that he had had known happiness and sadness, love and anger, fear and strength.

I knew as we talked, he too had held a woman's hand at night, watched the moon and stars reflecting off the water, hearing the laughter of children, thinking of how beautiful life was going to be after the war.

It seemed to me that we had a lot in common in our lives and this war. Like me I was assured that he too marveled at a beautiful sunset, and laughed at a silly joke. and yet we came from different places, a different culture, yet he didn't seem me.

I remember as I was talking to him, thinking he looked like crap! He smelled, but that was expected, and understandable, for this was war. He had messy dirty hair, his skin like dark leather stuck to his thin face, the hollowed look of his dead eyes.

Looking back to that time in Viet Nam, I was glad I'd taken the time to have an imaginary conversation with him. He was dead now, just another soldier like me, who had tried to live his life the best he could.

His life was ended now, but not for me. His death made me want to keep my wits, concentrate on the skills I was taught by the training i had received.

MORE INFORMATION ON JAMES J. ALONZO:

http://www.amazon.com/James-J.-Alonzo/e/B006OBIAJW

http://www.storymania.com/cgibin/sm2/smshowauthorbox.cgi?page=1&author=AlonzoJJ&alpha=A

http://covvha.net/author/woodturner/