An Unforgettable Salute: Skirmishes, Battlefields, and Making Peace with My Father

It all seemed so picture-perfect. It was a typical fall evening in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, in 1965 when John Gouin, a twelve-year-old boy with big dreams came home from football practice and sat down at the dinner table with his mother. But when the front door slammed loudly shut, John and his mother anticipated the worst. His father was a man lost within his own anger.

In his compelling memoir An Unforgettable Salute, Gouin chronicles his lifelong battle to please his alcoholic father, h...