Durbin Feeling, Vietnam War veteran  Durbin Feeling: Nightmares
of War and Dreams of the Future  Wilhelm Murg  Speakers of the
Cherokee language know Durbin Feeling as the author of the
Cherokee- English Dictionary, which has been in print since 1975
through Cherokee publications. However, many do not realize the
dictionary’s author is a Vietnam War veteran.  Born in 1946 in
Claremore, Oklahoma, Feeling attended Bacone College in
Muskogee, Oklahoma before transferring to Ottawa University in
Ottawa, Kansas. Shortly after he ended up owing the University
and was not permitted to enroll the following semester—stopping
his educational deferment. In 1967 he was drafted into the U.S.
Army and sent to Vietnam.  “As soon as we got there they gave us
an assignment near Long Bihn,” Feeling said. “It had the biggest
ammunition dump in the world, so a lot of mortar rounds came in
from the enemy trying to blow it up; it was kind of a hotspot.”
Feeling’s main duty was to work on planes and guard the dump,
but he also wor