Biloxi Rhapsody (Paperback)

I am Rhone, a 68 year old Caucasian American, a Cajun, code named Pop, and I have been writing my memoirs, about assimilation, faith, symbolism, and patriotism, in my head for most of my life. I, Rhone, dared not write most of my life experiences down on paper for fear of ridicule, until my experiences could be related with some semblance of credibility. I, Rhone Sonnier Louviere, a US Army Vietnam Era Veteran, 1962-65, have visions, dreams, and or nightmares of incidents from long ago. Names have been withheld from military accounts in order to observe military decorum (code names have been used). There is no malintent in this, my memoir, towards the Vietnamese people, US Military or other entities. One particular incident was a special black covert operation that occurred in Vietnam in July 1962, and it is this recurring nightmare and subsequent spiritual experience which propels me even deeper into my past to a point where I am obsessed with finding the facts about my military brothers, Snicker and Nickel. The truth surrounding my own family, and that of my Soulmate and childhood sweetheart, Barbara Miller Sonnier's family (wife of fifty years) are written to describe cultural assimilation in Biloxi. I have experienced tragic incidents during my entire life. When a child of less than five years of age, I was was confronted by a castaway dog named Gumbo and an alligator, and much later in my life in a harrowing experience where I, along with two of my men, are saved by a Phantom Spirit. A mental plague of visions, dreams, and nightmares compel me to mentally exploit the past through conversations with my Daddy, wife Barbara, brother Joe, and research. This is a search to separate embellished fact from outright fiction. Memories of my mentors words and actions are always paramount in my mind, as I trudge on with life's new and challenging experiences. I realize that with each new incident I have the experience and acumen to handle it and move forward. I, Rhone, from a young age had fantasies of completing higher education. I have a Bachelor of Science Degree from The University of Southern Mississippi; a Master of Science from Abilene Christian University; and I have aspirations toward a Doctorate in Public Policy/Sociology from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina (I dream it and then I do it). I roamed restlessly as I changed career paths, traveling state to state, and to countries throughout the world. I want to write it all down in a quest to try and make some sense of my worth in life, to my wife and my children, and to myself. In my timorous visions and dreams, Biloxi, Mississippi is the back drop early on, and throughout my life, while an ominous warehouse occupied by French speaking fisher people, and farmers, in Vietnam, is at the epicenter of my most dreaded nightmare.