Vietnam vet opens the door to a diploma, By Scott Herhold

Vietnam vet opens the door to a diploma, By Scott Herhold

(EXCERPT) Mercury News

Reyes Bejerano remembers the day he arrived in Vietnam as an
18-year-old soldier in September 1969 -- the blast of heat, the sound
of shells, the smell of the jungle. ``I got off that plane, and I
thought, man, this is for real,'' he said.

For Bejerano, now a 53-year-old laborer and truck driver in East San
Jose, it stayed all too real. He says he hasn't gotten a good night's
sleep since. He suffers from hepatitis and asthma. Until he went sober
13 years ago, he battled alcohol and drugs.

What he doesn't have -- and yes, it rankles, particularly now -- is a
high school diploma. That may be about to change. Credit a simple
question, a call to a newspaper and a quick response by a
public-relations-savvy schools superintendent.

Bejerano grew up in Tucson but moved to San Jose as a youth, attending
Overfelt High School for a couple of indifferent years. He was
impre...

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---------------------------
Otis Willie
Associate Librarian
The American War Library
http://www.americanwarlibrary.com