Breaking Squelch : A Vietnam Introspective

 Author's Summary

Out of the mists of a war-ravaged jungle half the world - and half a lifetime - away, Steve Saunders finds the introspection to put his Vietnam experience at rest. Breaking Squelch is an epic tale of mortal combat, of privation and suffering, of the ultimate test of young men's valor and of their civility. At times, it's punctuated with their boyish antics.

MWSA Review

I just finished reading the book Breaking Squelch: A Vietnam Introspective tonight. Author Stephen D. Saunders has truly captured the culture and essence of what it was like. It rings true and paints a clear picture for those who never served in Nam - and it woke up memories in those of us that did. The author writes about his own "tour-of-duty" in 1966-67 in the Vietnam War as a young man. 

His memoir doesn't necessarily follow a linear path in story telling but it moves emotionally and spiritual across that life shaping experience like "a slug crawling on a razor's edge"! He shares with us the emotions, sounds and even the smells of combat. It is a excellently written accounting which also makes for entertaining reading. 

If you wanted to know what it might feel like to be a "grunt" in the ground war in Nam - this would be the book to chose to read and study. In some ways, it becomes a coming of age story and you can see the young man that the author once was as he reflects back from middle age. 

Reviewed by: Bill McDonald (2009)