The Mailman Went UA: A Vietnam Memoir

 Author's Summary

Memoir by a Marine who served in Vietnam with the 27th and 7th Marines from May 1968 through June 1969. His book is not so much about the Vietnam War but about the experiences, horror, and tragedy of war, based on his experience, so that others will see the futility of it, unless there is absolutely no other way. He hopes that what he has written will be the next best thing to actually being there, and that it will give a taste of what it is like to go through it, and his hope that it will change the way people look at war as a viable solution. He wants people to see it from the less privileged viewpoint and get a taste of real war. The title, The Mailman Went UA, came from their little song and dance routine that they performed when they didn't receive any mail. Strong language, racial and sexual references. 18 photos, glossary.

MWSA Review

There are hundreds of Vietnam memoirs in publication, but few as brutally honest, and raw as The Mailman Went UA. The coarse language will be offensive to those ears that left such language behind them in Vietnam. It will be devastating, unreadable to those who did not serve. The actions remembered here, of young men in combat, will seem appalling after all these years, to those who participated. They were. But it is what it is, and it is all true. Mr. Mulldune has absolutely told it like it was; to be a 19 year old Marine in America's dirtiest war. While it makes one shudder at times, the author's writing courage is undeniable. He admits to having no aspirations for literary greatness, just the bold explosive facts of how it was. It is hoped that this book gives him some release, some closure, and a point from which to go forward.
 
For every self-proclaimed Vietnam vet you meet, many are not at all. For everyone that did serve in Vietnam, only 1 in 7 saw daily in the dirt combat.  This book is for that small percentage that walked this walk, to be sure. But, it is also for those that wear their service on their sleeves, but did not have the misfortune to walk point. Now they can know.

Reviewed by: Bob Flournoy (2010)