Author Description

The Vietnam Diary 1966 - 1967 is a collection of journal entries, letters and poetry written during a young man's tour of duty in Vietnam. It includes photos and flashbacks that occurred during the author's writing of the book, and is illustrative of the lives of the thousands of troops that experienced that controversial war. The author joined the Marine Corps in 1966 and by the fall of that year was in Vietnam in the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Division in Golf Company, Weapons Platoon, was posted as a machine gunner. He was involved in 2 major battles, many smaller ones and was wounded twice. The journal is a chronological account of his year there starting from boot camp in San Diego to his final days in the service. Mixed with his actual journal entries are letters he writes home and poetry he wrote that reflects his response to the war, combat and death. The letters to his father and his mother and sister are distinctly different in content and tone, the journal entries the musings of a young boy away from his family for the first time in horrific conditions, the poetry fresh with promise, and the remembrance's often painful. By way of example: Excerpt from Letter to Dad: "But speaking of your counter-insurgent, you can bet your boots that's what we are. We employ the same tactics they use with heavier armament and better equipped personnel. We are hardly conventional troops, though they call us that back home for political as well as social reasons, but we use much the same tactics as do the VC short of torture, killing of innocents, etc. although there are scattered incidents of these as in any war. But we hide in the field, search and destroy, sweep, ambush, etc. generally being miserable, wet, hungry, cold-hot, and wishing we were home." Excerpt from Letter to Mom & Sis: "I received my tentative orders and I'm scheduled to go overseas Nov. 21, so it looks like I'm not going to get a chance