This story's timeline takes place in 1970. The story is about a young man who returns from the war in Vietnam to a dysfunctional family situation in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and the famous Crescent Hotel, that is well known for its paranormal activity. What happens there, is another unique mystery.

Preface

It was late summer 1970. Over the previous five years the United States had been experiencing an escalation in civil unrest. From a few minor college Anti-war protest over the Viet Nam war that were synonymous with the "Hippie Peace movement" in 1965, eventually grew in intensity to "Breaking News" events on all major television networks. Some of the larger civil rights protest making headlines around the world were the Watts riots in Los Angles, followed by the equally destructive riots in Detroit. Then in 1968, major networks included daily American lives lost or wounded in action reports following the escalation of the violence with the Tet Offensive in Viet Nam and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the United States.

The general public's anti-war sediment reached a heightened level of anxiety and triggered even larger civil rights and anti-war protest in all major cities across the United States in the spring of 1970, after two major tragedies came to light. The first was the My Lai Massacre, where over 350 innocent and unarmed Vietnamese Villagers were killed, and the Kent State Massacre, where four anti-war protesters were killed and nine other unarmed students were wounded by the Ohio National Guard.

To help fuel the war and its $25 billion drain on the economy, low- and middle-income families gave up their 18- and 19-year-old young men to the military draft at a rate of over 40,000 per month. Eventually, 2.2 million men would be drafted during the Viet Nam conflict. Although each of those young men had a story worth telling, When Johnny Comes Marching Home, is the story of one of those young men, John Bartholomew Barlow.

Chapter 1 - What am I doing here?

It was early Monday morning, September 21, 1970. John Barlow, generally referred to by his friends as Jack, and sometimes referred to by his closest friends as, "Gentleman Jack" because of his polite manners, quiet demeanor, and his always well-groomed appearance, had an epic problem. Everything in his normal life had seemed to have changed, including his neatly trimmed long blond hair that was currently only a little longer than his week-old beard and his athletic, but always a few pounds overweight six-foot-tall frame, was now best described as "wiry," since he returned from his thirteen-month tour of Viet Nam.

Today, Jack found himself sitting on a hardwood bench in a holding cell in the basement of the Fayetteville District courthouse. He was there waiting for an arraignment hearing that was scheduled to start several hours later at 11 am. He had arrived extra early because there was only one daily scheduled trip over and one return trip back to the county jail. He had spent the last three days, since his arrest Friday afternoon, thinking about the events that had led to his uncharacteristic conduct and the situation he now found himself in. He was aware that his emotional outbursts seemed to be escalating since his completion of two-long years of active duty from the Army a few weeks earlier. For the most part, he had been able to keep them in check, until recently. Jack closed his eyes and thought about everything that had led up to the predicament he now found himself in…