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Member Since: Jan. 14, 2011

GC Frantz

SitRep Negative: A Year In Vietnam on July 03, 2011

Sitrep Negative: A Year in Vietnam Some of us went. Some, for various reasons, stayed behind. This was a terrifically misunderstood war, both then and now. When friends came home from Vietnam, we knew right away they were different from the men and women we’d known prior to Nam. 58,000 died there, and many more were wounded. Even those who appeared whole seemed… remote. How many times have you read about a “thousand yard stare?” Looking at these guys, you knew exactly what that meant. GJ Lau’s account tells of the ordinary life of a service man in Nam. To a great extent, it doesn’t deal in great heroic deeds or horrific combat. I think the situations he described were experienced by a great many of the over 2.5 million Americans who served “in country” during the Vietnam era. The anxiety, frustration and fear were daily rations, along with the C and K rations. The understanding that everything was totally crazy was universal. Depend on your closest buds; the others are watching out for themselves. Those of us who stayed behind learned that vets rarely, if ever spoke about their tour of duty, except with other vets, or not at all. Lau’s candid recounting of his experiences in Nam helped me understand a lot of things about what went on and those who served there. Recommended.