For most Americans, a war is fought and then ends. But for many of those who fight on the front line, the battle is never over.

Greg Helle, a Vietnam War veteran and hospital administrator at Iowa State’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital, has been fighting the war for 35 years. Greg, like many other war veterans, lives with post-traumatic stress disorder, a disease he says is “a normal reaction to an abnormal situation.”

Recently, Greg compiled his poems and thoughts in a book titled “A Walk in Hell.” With roots in the trauma Greg experienced due to a sexual assault by a fellow soldier and the carnage of the war itself, the book reflects “not on fighting the war, but what happens when the war is over.”

“The memories just won’t disappear. I have panic attacks, flashbacks and nightmares, and it is like I am right back in Vietnam again,” Greg says. “Today, you see a hundred different books about the heroes of wars, but very rarely do you find books about the war that is still fought within each soldier after they are safely returned home.”

Greg entered the war at age 18 and came back to the United States at 20. Since then he has dealt with alcoholism and has been suicidal at times, he says. For him, the war and its after-effects are a constant battle.

“The summer is a bad time because of the heat and everything is lush, just like it was in Vietnam. My wife says how beautiful things are and all I can picture is someone standing behind a tree ready to take my life,” he says.

This book was written not to just tell his story, Greg says, but to send a message to today’s soldiers about life in combat and living as a veteran.

“These people are offering America the ultimate sacrifice, and when they come back, we have to be willing to get them the help they need, so they won’t have to live the rest of their lives in fear, the way I have lived mine,” Greg says.

“A Walk in Hell” started off with no intentions of being a published book; instead, it was a type of therapy for Greg — a way for him to convey his emotions on paper.

“In Vietnam, you were not allowed to have emotions, because emotional ties to anyone got you killed,” Greg explains.

About 28 years later, while in counseling, his thoughts flowed onto paper in the form of poetry.

Greg says he got the idea to type up these thoughts and give them to his wife and children, so they would have a better understanding of what happened to him. From there his poems fell into the hands of his sister-in-law, a professional editor, who sent the material to a self-publisher.

“This published book is therapeutic for him as well as for others,” says his wife, Alice. “It helps him to realize that there are other people out there that are just like him and that he does not suffer this alone.”

Although the big-gest breakthroughs for Greg have been his treatments and going public with his condition, there was a time when Alice worried he would cause himself harm.

“The most difficult part was knowing how miserable [Greg] was and not knowing what to do about it,” Alice says.

Greg says he has a hard time with crowds. Although he enjoys football, he cannot attend games due to the large number of people. Despite these factors, he says his wife and children have remained supportive.

Although there is no cure for post-traumatic stress disorder, there is help, he says.

“The biggest treatment is medications,” Greg says. “I take 16 pills in the morning, 10 during the day and six more before I go to bed. Counseling teaches you coping skills — that there are other options besides the soldier options of running away, isolating yourself or resorting to drugs or alcohol.”

While Greg lives with his memories of Vietnam every day, Alice’s encouragement and support are there for her husband day in and day out as well.

“The best advice I can give for those who may be living with a family member that struggles with [post-traumatic stress disorder] is to get the member to seek help and to seek help themselves on how to live with it,” Alice says. “Although [the condition] cannot be cured, it can be improved.”

Greg says he continues to look positively toward the future.

“Right now I take one step at a time. I will always need counselors and drugs, but what I have to do for my illness I have to do,” he says. “Things could be worse, and I plan on making something of myself through lectures, book signings and possibly future books.”

In addition to his public appearances, Greg says it is important for his message to reach other veterans with similar experiences.

“[The book is] touching people,” he says. “It’s hardly out [in distribution], but I’m already getting e-mails and conversing with other veterans. There is no way I can change what happened, but maybe I can help the next generation.”