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In this poignant, honest memoir, the author details his time in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. He openly acknowledges how very few from his unit returned home. Throughout the book, the author also shares photographs from his time in the military. These photographs further humanize the author's experiences. The author's recollections are highly detailed, and the book's audience can enter the landscapes and missions that have left him with innumerable questions since his time in Vietnam. Most admirably, the author's remembrances are honest and vulnerable, especially about the grief that war inflicts on soldiers and former soldiers. Survival—during the war and afterward—centers every story, and numerous reflections depict the unbreakable brotherhood the Vietnam War forged among the men who served in the military during one of America's (and the world's) most tumultuous periods.
This is a bold, brave, and riveting collection. From the beginning, the author acknowledges that writing became a unique method for dealing with the past. Thus, this book's pages are not only a personal record of what happened to one soldier during the Vietnam War. They are also a testimony to the healing power and the preservation mechanism that writing can provide. As the years since the Vietnam War grow more and more distant, and as wars around the globe cause many to rethink war's necessity, this book becomes a necessary read. Those interested in military literature, military history, and Vietnam War history will appreciate this book. It is a unique contribution to the canon of war literature.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review