Men Talk June/July 2008

A Review of Souled Out: A Memoir of War and Inner Peace
© 2008 by Amy Blumenshine

As care providers and healing men seek to learn about the spiritual impact of war on soldiers, they would be well-served to read the recent memoir by the Wisconsin veteran Michael Orban. Exquisitely reflective and with well-crafted description, Orban describes his own decades of healing his war-wounded soul. Not yet 20, he had slogged his way through the Vietnamese bush in the infantry, acting with a "Kill or be killed" mentality. He quotes the heretical version of the 23rd Psalm popular with the infantry: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, because I am the meanest M..F..er in the valley." While acting to survive, he witnessed and participated in activity that he describes as stealing his soul.