Bruce Anderson

I first read this book shortly after it was originally released. It was brought to my attention by someone I had known during my last year in the Marine Corps, when I was assigned as a marksmanship instructor at the Marine Officer Candidate School, at Quantico, Virginia in 1966. We both went on to become police officers in San Jose, Ca, in the early seventies. I immediately recognized that the first part of the book was about the unit I was with in Vietnam, the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines. I was in the 1st Platoon of Alpha Company, while Caputo was assigned to C Company, as a 2nd Lieutenant platoon commander. I knew nearly all of the Marines in 1stBn (we had been together for nearly two years, at that time), but Caputo had been newly assigned just shortly before we were airlifted out to Danang, during the first week in March, in 1965. In any case, I never met him. I do remember what he has to say about our shared time in Vietnam, and it is correct.