Vietnam Memoir

This is a powerful story that relates the author's experiences in Vietnam. He entered the Marines at age eighteen, leaving behind a girl he loved and who would bear his child, he arrived in Vietnam prior to the Tet Offensive.

I was also in the military at that time. My branch of service was with the U.S. Air Force but I could certainly relate to the happenings during war.

The descriptions of Marines in action are very real. Of course, it is a memoir but I consider that these were men at the same age as I was at that time.  I found the battle scenes intense and dramatic. I also enjoyed the descriptions of the locations where Jack Estes served in Vietnam.

There were some action events that were so severe that I had to pause and take a breath. More than one Marine yelled "I'm hit," and one badly wounded Marine yelled "...kill me." I could only imagine his terrible pain.

This is a memoir that people who were in service during Vietnam would read and be reminded of what went on during the war. I enjoyed when Jack read in "Stars and Stripes" about Jane Fonda communicating with members  the North Vietnamese Army. and wondered how this must have made soldiers and Marines in the field feel they had been betrayed.