How Can You Mend This Purple Heart is not a story about combat in the jungles of Vietnam. This is a story about young Americans who left their homes and returned to the comforting and healing shelter of a military hospital; wounded, frightened and proud.

They were boys who returned from combat as men; men who left the better part of their youth, a bit of their souls and a lot of their flesh in Vietnam. It’s a story about the physical and mental struggles of healing from the wounds of war. It’s a story about longing to recapture the spirit of boyhood and rekindle the optimism and fearlessness of youth. And it’s about their struggle to be whole again—or at the very least, to feel whole.

In the hospital, they learned to live for the moment, and reveled in the fervor of life with no expectations and no apologies.

The confined space of their shared ward, the sprawling U. S. Naval Hospital and the nearby streets and bars of south Philadelphia became their home. Like any home, it served as a place to gather, to belong, to struggle, to play, a place to find support and, ultimately, a place to heal.

And every day of healing brought them closer to the day they could go home, a day they would both cherish—and fear.

“In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all…Perfect relief is not possible, except with time. You cannot now realize that you will ever feel better…And yet, this is a mistake. You are sure to be happy again.”

President Abraham Lincoln