This is a hard book to review, as I'm also a Viet Nam veteran. The book is 402 pages long and should have been shorter. The author was a machine gunner in the Corps and very accurately recounts his 13- months in Viet Nam. At the beginning and end he also discusses what he did before and after being in the Marines.
However, there is a lot of repetition in the book. For example, for some battles he includes not only his own account, but numerous accounts from other Marines and official reports, many of which are almost duplicates of his own account. Plus, he often lists daily action briefs from official USMC records and then "translates" (his own word) that short report into a slightly longer version which make more sense to the average reader. The shorter daily action briefs should have been left out. I eventually just skipped over them.
One thing he wrote struck me as almost funny. His narrative also contains most of his letters home to his family. Early in the book he states he kept his letters home light so as not to frighten his family. All I can say about their content is that if I had written to my folks what he wrote to his, my parents would probably have experienced nervous breakdowns.
However, there is a lot of repetition in the book. For example, for some battles he includes not only his own account, but numerous accounts from other Marines and official reports, many of which are almost duplicates of his own account. Plus, he often lists daily action briefs from official USMC records and then "translates" (his own word) that short report into a slightly longer version which make more sense to the average reader. The shorter daily action briefs should have been left out. I eventually just skipped over them.
One thing he wrote struck me as almost funny. His narrative also contains most of his letters home to his family. Early in the book he states he kept his letters home light so as not to frighten his family. All I can say about their content is that if I had written to my folks what he wrote to his, my parents would probably have experienced nervous breakdowns.
