Where Have You Been Bobby Marr?

Finished July 15

Where Have You Been Bobby Marr? Friend, Felon, Hero by Morris Dalla Costa

This biography is of a man who underwent many challenge, mental and physical trauma, PTSD, bad choices, incarceration, and personal loss. Bobby Marr was born in 1948 in London, Ontario, the second child of his parents. His father was a veteran of World War II, and a hard worker, trying a variety of types of work in an effort to support his family. His search for work soon took the family to Texas and the children grew up there. Bobby was good with his hands, liked cars, and was a confident young man. When the Vietnam War began, he thought about his options, leaning towards heading to Canada. But his father, having served his own country during war, pressued Bobby to do his. 

Bobby trained as a medic, and lasted longer than many of his fellow soldiers in Vietnam, but was eventually wounded badly enough to be sent home. It was then that his life began to really go in a bad direction. The support for returning veterans from Vietnam wasn't there as it had been in other wars. Media had brought pictures of some of the atrocities done there to those at home and that turned many against the veterans. The war was an unpopular one to begin with, and that didn't help. The government support was also lacking, both in financial support being given in a timely way and in the lack of mental health support that was badly needed. As Bobby made choices on his gut and feelings, these choices weren't always in his best interests. 

Bobby is a man that cares about his fellow man, particularly those less well off. His time as a medic showed his caring impulse, as did his actions while incarcerated as he tried to help not only himself, but others caught in a system that was not set up to rehabilitate the inmates, but to wear them down. 

This book starts with some of the bigger events in his life and then moves back to his roots, telling of his family situation and his childhood, and continuing from there. His life story is well told, with compassion and real interest, and while for me it was a slow start, once I got further in, it really gripped me. 

Bobby's story is one of many of men of his generation, and serves as enlightening about the mistakes society has made in the past.