European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 5, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Review Ravo reporter portrays life of gis in Vietnam by Don kick special to sri i s Muf. know Hun fall a Lii Ali sid.". In Chr 1.1 h need i1 s. Frill e i the i .1-1 i in Luis . Loi a i i. Lie walled to set those Leel Lihs sikht1. Nuniss and words Down on paper Mil on new sunni Here Loday and Fiji Otten fori Ier but in i 1om.-i. His ultimate Goj Konakh the spirit of men Ai War living inv info flying ail sufism i but still Ilyin a Little. Hmoih hurtling is the fulfilment of that dream of writ n Jhm ii men in combat. I s not just a creation spun off in a Lew weeks from fraying notes and memories. In act i knew Don from almost the time he k " if Saigon and i remember him saying then As he was to say years later that he was writing a Nativi the question Jar i him As Barnit us Many people who say i,.i-y re writing a novel was whether he would actually gel the Job done and published. He rim rely finished the Job going on 20 years Ahei he Lisl t of Meives it but has managed Ishri Isih tin1 distillation of lamented memories to part Idun e Une of the must readable realistic pieces of i lion in ome out of the War. Don l worry when son i this Book about whether in was really ibis Way in Vietnam. Yes in was. Don t worry Abnusi whether cos really talked Andrj thought that Way in Vietnam. Yes they did. Don t worry about whether Battles were ought that Way. Yes they were the to Riih Hii Nesty of tale s writing sets it Opal from much of the Vietnam literature. Ail the types existed the ones who did t want to go Thoie who were Yung Holo fight the old timers who passed on their Wisdom and toughness the ambitious officers who preened their feathers or the press. There were heroes bul they were heroes or the wrong reasons and Tsi Erc were cowards but they Don tale coveted Vietnam As j Neil paper . Weren t Neie , thai inwardly. Human chins Don t come in the easy storeolype1. Of newspaper glories or quickie novels. Tate knows Ihrl and he avoid the easy images. Tile people emerge i their re ales in the fight for a Hill. Us an up and Down Fishl. First up then Clown Ihen up Akin in scene1, of carnage that Are a parable of a Fiat in the end was useless. Tale nol Iru Iden Lally was on that Hill. He s a riling about people he knew embroidering or the Lake of fiction bul reflecting the in sires of people s minds As he witnessed them. He s of the dialogue incr sense of scene the weird feeling of Hope and finally uselessness. Those were the Days of dreaming the Days of Vietnam he writes at the end. It was that kind of yet Al inc Momeni of Triumph the hero was impotent still trying to figure out what it was All Aboul Why he Foughi actually those Days Are beginning to come into focus. It took a while bul i am pelting the of sure. Nobody Yot the picture least of All the lol Tinel who Kepi using that lion the safety of his helicopter. The words Are written in irony part of the irony Tif a War that few of us understood then nor even now or Are we Deming the picture now in our Yony of remorse and doubt Over the failure in our history Tate May be trying to answer questions of that sort but he does t be labor the Point. Rather he s Velsini us about people All of us from the so reels of anywhere Usa and what they said and How they suffered. Cis ought to read this Book. They la definitely learn something about what War is like beyond training and exercises. In the process they la suffer vicariously and laugh too in moments of humor that lighten the Load o ear and anger. They May even Sec themselves in some of these characters Hough if icy re Lucky they la never find themselves placing their roles. Don Kirk now with Usa today covered Vietnam for four years for . Newspapers and nil ghz nes and wrote two books Oddur the War. 20 stripes if ignite june 5,1986
