When I Turned Nineteen: A Vietnam War Memoir chronicles my long journey as a nineteen-year-old that my country sent to an unpopular war. I am not claiming my year in Vietnam was any harder or more dangerous than any other soldier that served; I’m sure there were other soldiers and platoons that had it much harder than we did. I know it was difficult for all of us.
Writing this book is the first time that I talk in detail about my experiences with First Platoon in Vietnam. Over the past forty-seven years I never discussed it with my brothers of First Platoon or even my best friend Mike Dankert. And Mike was with me during it all. I don’t know which is more difficult, reliving the events of 1969 as I wrote the book or sharing my story. |
It’s the year, 1969, I served in the U.S. Army with my brothers of First Platoon Company A 3/1 11th Bde Americal (23rd Infantry) Division. We were average American sons, fathers, husbands or brothers that enlisted or drafted from all over the United States and with different backgrounds. We came together and formed a brotherhood that will last through time.
I share my experiences about weeks of boredom and minutes to hours of terror and surviving the heat, humping, monsoons, insects, a forest fire, a typhoon, building a firebase, fear, death and fighting the enemy while being mentally, physically and morally exhausted.
I didn’t write about the politics of war, well not much, but I did write about how war affects the humanity of soldiers ordered to war and what they have to live with when they come home; the lucky ones get to come home.
"Be it a just war or an unpopular war, the effects are the same for the soldier fighting the war." Glyn Haynie
I share my experiences about weeks of boredom and minutes to hours of terror and surviving the heat, humping, monsoons, insects, a forest fire, a typhoon, building a firebase, fear, death and fighting the enemy while being mentally, physically and morally exhausted.
I didn’t write about the politics of war, well not much, but I did write about how war affects the humanity of soldiers ordered to war and what they have to live with when they come home; the lucky ones get to come home.
"Be it a just war or an unpopular war, the effects are the same for the soldier fighting the war." Glyn Haynie