Up Country, Super book, every Vietvet should read this. The dialogue is a little tedious and occasionally annoying from the main character, retired Warrant Officer, Brenner. It is fiction and actually Brenner is sent to Vietnam to investigate a murder which is quite interesting. But, I loved the Vietnam descriptions and the references of when we were there. It is "right on" with the thoughts. I did with this book what I do rarely, kept notes. The author obvious did his research or somebody did for him. The author, Nelson DeMille, is a Vietnam vet and was with the 1st Cav.; he actually has a website,Nelson DeMille
And, I especially liked the view of modern Vietnam which is something we often forget: Vietnam is a totalitarian regime. Fortunately, younger Vietnamese in the South are able to operate rather freely or so it seems; both from the book and from reports I hear.
The book has some great dialogue. A woman says to the main character, Paul Brenner, "I know a few men your age who work here, and a few men who I've met here (meaning Vietnam) who have returned to find something or maybe lose something. So, I know it's tough. And I can understand. But for people my age, Vietnam is a country, not a war."
ANY VIETNAM VET WILL RECOGNIZE THIS FEELING
"a long item ago, when Vietnam was a war and not a country, I could remember recalling nights like this out under the stars, the tropical breeze moving through the vegetation. And there were other nights without a breeze, when the vegetation moved, and you could hear the tapping of the bamboo sticks that they (meaning the VC) used to signal one another. The tree frogs stopped croaking and even the insects became still and the night birds flew off. And you waited in the deathly silence, and even your breathing stopped, but your heart thumped so loudly you were sure everyone could hear it. And the sound of the tapping bamboo came closer and the vegetation swayed in the breezeless night."
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| Zany and Interesting: Wild Animals and San Fran by John Moore |
Just looking at the headlines of the paper gives you an idea of what a zany place this is. Some of the residents of the South Bay are really upset over a cougar that the police killed. Now, get this, here was this wild animal, that wandered into this neighborhood.
Obviously, we are encroaching on his territory but not much we can do about it at this stage. Anyway, he's pretty dangerous and in the next county, one actually attacked a hiker and almost killed him. No small thing. But, here is this cougar and it is up a tree just a few blocks from this elementary school which is about to let out these hundreds of kids. So, there's danger, no doubt about it and the police have to make a reluctant decision. A dart gun to tranquilize could take 30 minutes to take effect.So what to do? They shoot the cougar.
So, we have this barrage of emails and nasty phone calls because they did. The cougar is mourned and some folks have set up a memorial.
Here's a good email, "Editor, Bay Area residents love to tell themselves and the rest of the world how civilized they are. Well, our response to the hapless mountain lion argues otherwise. That was a brutal response to a minor threat, and it indicates our true colors better than any Stanford merlot-and-chardonnay peace rally. I'm surprised the insular and mean- spirited residents didn't just order up the armored infantry to eliminate the intruder. Shame on us." RR, San Fran.
This is a good one. A deer crosses the Golden Gate Bridge in a record ten minutes. It ran from Marin County into San Francisco. It passed through lane eleven which is a “fastrak lane.
Someone made a joke or maybe it wasn’t. "Since the deer didn’t have a transponder it came across as a toll violation." (a transponder is a device that a motorist must have to cross without stopping to pay a toll the fee goes to the motorist’s credit card).
Any way, The deer takes 19th Avenue and disappears into the old Army post, the Presidio. Maybe the deer wanted to get out of the high rent, pretentious Marin into the more surreal San Fran. The deer could have had a date. Who knows. This is a case for, Without A Trace. Wild and Crazy Stuff.
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| Now Ain't that the Truth(Quote from General Zinni) |
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"I think there was dereliction in insufficient forces being put on the ground and (in not) fully understanding the military dimensions of the plan. If you're the secretary of defense and you're responsible for that. If you're responsible for that planning and that execution on the ground. If you've assumed responsibility for the other elements, non-military, non-security, political, economic, social and everything else, then you bear responsibility. If I were the commander of a military organization that delivered this kind of performance to the president, I certainly would tender my resignation." -Gen. Anthony Zinni, former Marine General
----Read more in the book Battle Ready
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