Marshall Bloom’s liberation search ended alone in a field

From New Hampshire Gazette

Last of four parts

The renovated barn at the Montague Farm, as seen this month.  Credit: CAROL LOLLIS

The second week of August is still high summer in New England. But up in the hills of Montague, Massachusetts, not quite 20 miles south of the Vermont border, it’s not uncommon to see the reddening of maple leaves, the first hints of death of the natural year.

On Aug. 11, 1968, when Marshall Bloom returned to the Pioneer Valley, America was tearing apart at the seams. The war in Vietnam had descended into sheer brutality. Early 1968 had seen the Tet offensive, the unnerving Saigon execution photo on Page 1 of American newspapers, and the My Lai massacre. U.S. troop levels had now surged past 500,000.

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