Father's War Became Daughter's Nightmare

April 2, 2006 — -- Danielle Trussoni hopes her children will remember fun and happy times. It would be a stark contrast from the memories she has -- of a war she never fought but that irrevocably shaped her life.

Trussoni's father, Dan Trussoni, was drafted to fight in the Vietnam War in 1967, traveling there in 1968. Never one to back away from a challenge, she says, he chose to be a "tunnel rat" hunting the Viet Cong.

"It was extremely, extremely dangerous," Danielle Trussoni said. "The casualty rate was very high."

Dan Trussoni survived the deadly work, but his closest friend and mentor, Tom Goodman, was killed when the two of them were out one day checking tunnel entrances for traps.

"Tom went to go do it and there was nobody there," Danielle Trussoni said. "And, it was my dad's turn. And Tom said, 'Oh, don't worry about it, I've got it. I'll get this time.' And he was careless because they thought nobody was around, and he flipped it up, and someone shot him in the head.

"My dad witnessed that and carried him back to the rest of the platoon, which were behind him," Danielle said. "And this experience damaged him very deeply."

Dan Trussoni eventually came back to the United States but brought the war's horror home with him. In 1973, he started a family, but his nightmares eventually drove his wife away. Danielle, Daddy's little girl and namesake, chose to stay with her father while her brother and sister went to live with their mother.

At the age of 12, she became her father's confidante.

"I think that by taking in such violence, and having such violent stories become part of my life at such a young age, I did always feel a very deep connection with Vietnam and I always felt that Vietnam was my war," she said.

The years Danielle Trussoni should have spent socializing with friends, shopping and going to parties, she spent in dark bars, listening to war stories and taking her father home when he'd had too much to drink.