This started out so good. The writing was engaging, and Ketwig comes across as a thoughtful and intelligent individual. The sections of the book where there's contact with the enemy are excellent. Ketwig's writing becomes choppy and quick during the parts; you can absolutely feel the tension, uncertainty and stress.

But the book loses steam about half-way through. I think the turning point for me was Ketwig's R&R in Penang. Part of this is because all of a sudden he's been in Vietnam for eight months, yet there's no feel for the passage of time for the reader. The other part is that he falls in love with a prostitute in Penang, and hopes to marry her and take her back to the States. It just comes across so pathetic and naïve. And this book I guess is no different than other memoirs in this respect, but I'm never sure how much I buy the dialogue. Ketwig writes lengthy conversations and monologues. I guess you have to take his word that they happened at all, or happened as he writes them.

After Ketwig's year in Vietnam, he goes to Thailand and really nothing else happens. It certainly provides a different perspective of serving in Southeast Asia, but it's not very interesting. Travel, random stories, philosophizing... The book wraps up with Ketwig's return home. There's a lot to read post-Vietnam but I don't think there's anything about it that warrants that much space of the book being dedicated to it.

It probably felt good for Ketwig to write this book and get some of his feelings and memories off his chest. But as a reader I was left disappointed in the end. The first half or so is a really great read, but everything after that isn't worth the time.

And he fell on his head...hard

This person who claimed the book to be true? I seriously question that. The book was one of the worst I have read on the Vietnam war. It was so bad I could not, would not, finish the book. A waste of my hard earned money.

Another book I devoured when I was in the sixth grade. Was I actually smarter and hungrier to learn about my world then I am now...am I dumbing down in my old age? Dear God. Someone give me something to read!

I am absolutely fascinated by this era. And this book is not only a book about war, but the culture at the time--politics, music! and life in the US. I do not generally like war stories, but this one is completely different. It is fascinating! I recommend this book to anyone who wants an honest look at the Vietnam war, the effects on our soldiers, and the interesting history of what was happening in the States while they were away. This book opened my eyes to this war. Rarely did anyone speak of it, even history classes glossed over it in favor of WW2 and the Civil War. I knew very little going into this book, and came away with a greater respect for our Veterans, and knowledge of this war.

Engrossing and infuriating book. Mostly because, of all the first-person Vietnam books I've devoured, this one really depicts the utter inhumanity of the military and its treatment of those who went off to be senselessly destroyed in Vietnam. Ketwig's hardships don't even begin to encompass his under-fire conditions--though these and other atrocities are everywhere; the fear, the justifiable criteria for fragging officers, the bloodshed and torture. Yet the most harrowing moments portray the utter incompetence of the military-industrial complex itself. Ketwig and others have their lives put in danger over the pettiest, most selfish, cowardly political behavior I've ever read about the military. And it is positively nauseating to think of the US government in 1967 blindly sacrificing young generations of skilled men and women for such a lost cause, and then covering everything up. The injustices are impossible to ignore, so Ketwig does not come across as a crybaby or an unpatriotic man. He shows more bravery during his tour of duty than any of his sadistic training could have possibly prepared him for. And as for the ranking officers and other "leaders" he encounters who hide in their tents or behind enemy lines, the less said the better. One hell of a book. The author's descriptions of Thailand also measure up as fascinating, both culturally and politically.

excellent book

Ketwig's memoir of his time abroad as a soldier in southeast Asia and his ongoing struggle to make sense of the world that birthed the conflict in Vietnam is written with a raw and excruciating honesty. You will feel his fear, his hopes, his confusion, and get a deeper, more painful first-person view than you can even imagine in what I believe is hands-down one of the best personal accounts of the war.

Of all the memoirs I have read about service in Vietnam, this is the one that made me terrified, made me angry at this war and all wars, made me almost vomit. Ketwig has a pen that doesn't run out of ink and when he gets going, you hear his experience and opinions right, left, front, behind, up, down and upside down. He runs the risk of rant, but articulated with feelings, emotions, outrage, love, exasperation. And it is as if he experienced it all more intensely in reflection than he did the first time around. His PTSD has no holds barred. His extra tour, done in Thailand, because he felt without his gap year, he would be almost crippled in an inability to talk, to relate, to connect with people in the World.
Because I don't think it is right to give grades for life, all the memoirs get five stars. And each man's story is 100%, and yet I am in awe of Ketwig, who survived the military with his humanity and hius soul intact.

I loved this book! It was a vivid account of the whole scene surrounding Hill 875, Pleiku, and Dak To. It made me want to research and find out more....Ketwig is brutally honest and i loved thst! Great book!!!!!!

This was a difficult read; yet, very much worth reading! If you have the slightest interest in this era and this event and would like to understand more about how/why it happened the way it did, I strongly recommend that you read this book. It definitely isn't your typical political/military bullshit history book. It's from one man who pulled it out of himself from waaay down deep. It's probably one of the most truthful and accurate Vietnam era books I've ever read.

My Dad was a Vietnam vet, worked on the helicopters. From the Buffalo area also. As a child heard a lot of the lingo and some of the places. Definitely brought things more to light and even more understanding to his reactions, and quiet times you knew to leave him alone.

clearly the best vietnam era book written/ heartwrenching...