VIETNAM UNPLUGGED

A veteran recollects his service as a soldier in the Vietnam War and its lasting impact on his life in this memoir.

Major had a “cushy job” at a bank and an auspicious future but enlisted in the Army in 1966, lured by the promise of the GI Bill. After basic training and advanced infantry school, he endured the grueling demands of jump school at Fort Benning in Georgia and became a paratrooper. He was assigned to an airborne division in Vietnam, a post that permitted him to travel widely throughout the war-ravaged country, participating in search-and-destroy missions. The author vividly recounts his colorful experiences, ranging from the harrowing—the terrifying reality of combat—to the lighthearted, including the game camaraderie of fellow soldiers. After serving in Vietnam, Major received a military assignment in Okinawa, Japan. But his relief in having survived the war eventually became ennui, and, at the tender age of 22, he felt the pulverizing burden of shiftless disappointment. The author’s memoir is less a chronologically linear history than an assemblage of anecdotal reminiscences, all of which have the flavor of informality and even intimacy. Major often reflects deeply on the moral stakes of his extraordinary experiences. After choosing not to kill a teenage girl who wandered into a night ambush, he wondered how things could have been darkly different: “Where would my conscience be today? I don’t know, but no doubt in a more unsettled place. There’s no pride or glory in killing an unarmed girl, just the hollow statistic of a body count.” The author’s account is an exceeding personal one—he provides a recipe for PB&J sandwiches prepared with rations and a bayonet and lists of his favorite books and movies as well as uncredited, beautifully shot photographs. As a result, his recounting is unlikely to sustain the attention of those outside his circle of family and friends.

A candid and edifying but idiosyncratic account of the Vietnam War.