A Life in a Year: The American Infantryman in Vietnam, 1965-1972
Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1993. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. 24 cm, 406, references, index, spine cracked at p. 238 and reglued, usual library markings More than 60 Army and Marine infantrymen speak of their experience from induction, to the jungles and rice paddies of Vietnam, to their return to "The World." James R. Ebert holds a master’s degree in history and teaches in Wisconsin. Derived from a Kirkus review: Vivid, creative use of oral history (here, with the remembrances woven together by incisive commentary) that takes the conventional combat-report format—induction, boot camp, raw recruit, seasoned vet—and breathes new life into the war experience. Ebert interviewed an array of Army grunts and Marines for this report, and also drew on interview-transcripts of South Dakota's Vietnam Veterans Oral History Project. He and his subjects paint the Southeast Asian battleground in its true, unglamorous colors: One soldier likens his first exposure to the country's heat `to having someone hold a hairdryer up to his nose'; the author says that Vietnam's pervasive odor was characterized by many as `seminauseating and often likened to dead fish'). In this Vietnam, grenades are dangerous to friend and foe alike (one soldier describes standing in a chow line as someone accidentally pulls a pin, killing two and wounding 26), and ``humping'' the bush is a miserable, surreal existence, but one that most grunts stick to in order to avoid being branded a quitter—the lowest of the low—even though most days nothing is attained but total exhaustion. Also detailed are offensive operations, booby traps, drug use, and racial conflict. As the soldiers' time in Vietnam gets ``short'' (Army men serve 12 months; Marines, 13) their primary aim becomes survival before their luck runs out. Finally, the soldiers fly home, muster out of the service, and then often must withstand criticism for their part in a hated war. Even knowledgeable Vietnam War-readers will find fresh material here. Condition: Fair / Fair.
Keywords: Ambushes, Booby Traps, James R. Ebert, Infantryman, Military Training, Vietnam War, Personal Narratives, Selective Service, Viet Cong
ISBN: 0891415009
[Book #37110]
Price: $22.50