Reviews

Conditions: “I am really feeling like a tramp. I can only wash from a canteen… the sergeant killed a big rat in our bunker.” His Dad: “Tell Daddy not to work real hard, I would like to have a hand in building some nice places. (Here) I have to build everything I need.” His thanks to a neighbor lady for sending bible verses, for Tommy J was a regular church-goer who tithed.

To a pal he wrote how he had become an automatic rifleman with a weapon “...that could put out 700 rounds per minute. A lot of lead, right? Don’t worry about my health. Unless the VC have a bullet with my name on it, I’ll be OK. I don’t think they can spell my name.”

This book contains many photographs of Tommy J and his buddies in the field and displays the conditions under which they lived and fought. His nieces, Terri Walker and Connie Hughes, compiled his letters and have incorporated pertinent clippings from the Pacific Stars and Stripes that depict the war from a larger perspective as Tommy J writes from the trenches. They also include poetry, both poignant and bitter, written by GIs in the field.

Letters from Tommy J should be required reading for all politicians who have never served. George Orwell wrote: "People sleep peacefully in their beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." It isn’t always rough men who take up the call to arms. It is mostly the kid next door.

Reviewer Mark Berent served three tours in Vietnam with the Air Force as a fighter pilot. He is the author of five Vietnam combat books as seen at www.markberent.com.