Non-Fiction

Title: Tracks: Memoirs of a Vietnam Veteran
Author: Clyde Hoch
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir
Reviewer: Bob Doerr

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0615396577

This book is a remarkable account of a piece of American history that is rarely talked about: My name is Sergeant Clyde Hoch of C Company, First Tank Battalion, First Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force. I served in Vietnam from February of 1968 to April of 1969. When I was eighteen, I had a fast, hard lesson on how to become a man. It is called the United States Marine Corps. My life, like all of our lives, has been a series of trials and tribulations, triumphs and failure. We have many memories, thoughts, and stories that make up our history. This is a part of my history.

Title: Semper Cool: One Marine's Fond Memories of Vietnam
Author: Barry Fixler
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir
Reviewer: Bob Doerr

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0982518404

Semper Cool is the wrenching, sometimes hilarious and always thought-provoking true story of a well-off Long Island teenager who enlists in the U.S. Marine Corps seeking adventure and his father's approval and finds both, plus more danger than he ever could have imagined. Barry Fixler gets molded into a Marine at Parris Island and sent to Vietnam, where he is assigned to a company that would soon etch its place in Marine Corps lore. Fixler's Echo Company defends a hill at Khe Sanh against overwhelming enemy numbers in a 77-day battle that is considered one of the greatest military victories in the history of modern warfare. With its vivid imagery, Semper Cool thrusts readers into a grunt's eye view of the blood, guts, tears and laughter of war, as told by a Marine who returned home a man and a patriot. Be prepared to laugh and cry and ultimately thank God for the men and women willing to risk their lives for the freedoms that so many Americans enjoy.

Title: See the Dragon: One Wolfhound's Vietnam Story
Author: Don Arndt
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir
Reviewer: Tony Lazarini

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1430308176

How could such a small portion of a man's life affect him so much? What can happen to a man in only two years that could so profoundly reshape the entire rest of his life? Why can't a soldier just forget it and let it go? I did hold it in and kept it mostly out of mind for decades. I've asked myself those questions, and my friends have asked that of me too. I have no answer except to understand that for those few months, every moment was so intense and so emotionally filled that it somehow burns into a man so deep that it becomes like a scar on the inside, but not visible on the outside.