Get A Life In A Year: The American Infantryman In Vietnam Published By James R. Ebert Formatted As Paperback

you ever wanted to know what life is like for an infantryman in a grinding war read this, A collection of interviews and excerpts from letters, this book wasn't "written" as much as it was "compiled", Still, it's a pretty good portrait of America's most unpopular war and the men who fought it,

One of the best books on what it was like to an Infantryman in Vietnam, The book takes you from the first day of induction, through boot camp, infantry training, the trip over either by troop ship, which is how I went over, or by planethen follows the "cherry" phase, "veteran" phase and the "short" phase until you get on the plane to return to "the world".
The accounts of daily life are taken from the point of view of both the Army and the Marines, As someone who served multiple tours in both III Corps and I Corps, this book brought back both the humorous times and the times I try to forget.
As good if not better than either Robert Tonsetic's 'Days of Valor', or Tim O'Brien's 'The Things They Carried', A must read for anyone who served in Vietnam in the Infantry or someone who knows a veteran who did, The ending . so incredible. I was enthralled till the end, I found myself amused, disgusted, shocked, and respectful, This is a truly incredible work of art, I am so glad I read it, Wisconsin high school teacher James R, Ebert does a masterful job as he combines interviews and printed primary sources in this remarkable telling of the infantryman's experience during the Vietnam War, Ebert tells the story of the US Army and a few US Marine infantrymen during the Vietnam War, He takes their story from induction into the service through basic and advanced individual training, arrival in Vietnam, their first combat experiences, the first killed in action they experience, in some cases the soldier's death, and the freedom birds that take them back to the world.
Ebert points out while infantryman accounted for less thanof the American troops in Vietnam, the infantry suffered more thanof the losses,

Ebert uses an interesting technique starting every chapter with a letter by Leonard Dutcher to his parents, Dutcher just wanted to do his part for God and country and go home at the end of hismonth tourfor Marines, In the last chapter, we find out that Dutcher was killed, It caught me off guard and really added to the impact of the book, Ebert takes many of the soldiers and Marines experiences word for word from the individual himself through interviews or letters, It is a collective look at similarities of the many infantry soldiers and Marines in the war, It is a very personal account from many points of view,

This is an important book in Vietnam War literature, This is what the grunts really went through, I was left with somewhat of a feeling of guilt from reading the book, Why I graduated high school in, Some of my high classmates went to Vietnam and fought, Everett Maxwell was killed in action, I went to college and was ultimately commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry, went to airborne school and served three years active duty, My becoming an officer deferred my entry on active duty fromto, This is the reason for my reflective thoughts, Read by Jimmie A. Kepler in August. The vets stories are picked apart buy the author Ebert some college erudite with no service, he quotes the vets stories in paragraphs, then adds a page after each paragraph giving his explanation of what that vet "meant"
I have never seen worse structure, each page is like this, a quote from the vet then his explanation.
Just lets the vets speak, maybe the authors can have a intro or conclusion that's it, Nam by Mark Baker is a better book, Gets right to the nitty gritty of war, and let's the vets speak, Stephen Koranda gave thisThe best non fiction book I ever read about Vietnam, If you want an idea of what your soldier went through in their year of service, and they cannot or will not tell you, this book is for you.
How it went down. From waiting for your Selectice Service letter to going back home, if you were that fortunate,
I graduated High School in, Knew many guys a bit older who went, some enlisted for longer to avoid Nam and go to Germany or stay in Texas ! A few didn't make it back.
A few were changed for life in frightening ways,
This book really opened my eyes to their experience, awesome book
I love that this gives a step by

step description of what it looks like to join the military and head off to war.
It with enlistment, induction, basic training, advanced individual training, and then what happens when you're the FNG getting fired at for the first time with a bunch of oldtimers the guys who have been in Vietnam for at least six weeks already skeptically watching to see how you'll hold up.
I am glad I'm not a man, An analytical look at the realities of the day to day life of an infantryman in Vietnam, Compiled from interviews with veterans, but presented in a somewhat dry textbook fashion, What it lacks in personality it makes up for in volume of factual analysis, Michael Herr'sDispatches and Mark Baker's'Nam are better, This provocative indepth book focuses on the experiences of the infantry soldier in Vietnam, More thanArmy and Marine Corps infantrymen speak of their experiences during their yearlong tours of duty, .