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Summary: The unavailability of my books is a bittersweet matter
Review: As frustrating as it is not to be able to find my own books in second-hand shops, I take encouragement that their original owners apparantly can't bear to part with them...or that they are propping up a beloved ping-pong table-leg in the basement..
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Summary: THE book about Basic Training in the 60's
Review: Dear Mr. Tauber,I would like to take moment of your time to tell about what you did for many US soldiers in the early 70's. I was an art student in an eastern university in the late 60's and was convinced that despite the then-raging Vietnam war, things would be back to normal by the time I graduated in 1971, and that there was nothing to worry about. Even when the Draft Lottery was conducted (the only Lottery I ever won, with the number 11) I wasn't concerned. Things changed in 1971 when I received my "Pre-Induction Physical" notice in April. By July, I had made my own personal deal with it all by "volunteering" for three years, that extra year allowing me to select an MOS only used in Europe. It seemed the best I could do under the circumstances. I endured Basic Training in Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, and AIT at Ft Sill Oklahoma, and then after an all-too-brief leave, reported to the Overseas Replacement Station at Ft. Dix New Jersey. I ended up spending a week there, and it was there that I ran across "The Sunshine Soldiers" in the PX. A quick look inside the book quickly convinced me to buy it, and I took it back to the barracks and spent the evening doubled up with laughter. Other soldiers, wanting to know what was so funny, quickly bought out all the remaining copies after they heard a reading of a couple of passages from the book. Having just completed BCT a couple of months before, it was easy to see your journal played out in the environment that was seared into my memory. Even the characters resonated: the drill sergeants were the same, the Company Commander was the same, and we even had our own version of Norman Peyser! I took my copy of the book to Germany, but lost it after a couple of months of lending it to people, all of whom enjoyed it tremendously. A few months before I finished my 2 ½ year tour, I was handed a ragged copy of a paperback book along with the comment "Here, you should read this, it's really funny", and lo and behold I had been handed my own well-worn copy of "The Sunshine Soldiers"! Apparently it had been passed from hand-to-hand, from soldier to soldier, for over two years, never landing anyplace long enough to disappear into a bookshelf. They all thought it funny and perceptive enough to recommend it to friends, and it continued on its' journey back to me. I still have my ragged copy, now with covers laminated and the story of its' journey written inside the front cover. You created a real treasure, and brightened many soldiers' lives, including mine, during a very tough time in our lives! Thank very much from all of us for putting pen to paper while you were at Ft Bliss!
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Summary: One of the most hilarious books I've ever read!
Review: I actually bought this book 3 times. Apparantly the people I lent them out to must've also enjoyed them enough to never return them! This book actually kept me sane through Basic Training,1973,at Fort Dix,NJ.I lost my first copy during Basic (borrowee went AWOL,obviously inspired from the passage) second copy lost during barracks shakedown (probably confiscated as questionable reading material) and the third copy,tattered and worn,is probably in a used bookstore in Southeast Asia!! This book is a must read for anyone who has,or is about to experience the life lesson of Army Basic Training! (It reminded me a LOT of the first half of the movie "Stripes"!)Pick up this book,if you can find it...I'm STILL looking to buy another copy of it! This one won't get out of my sight!!!!!
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Summary: Best Description of the New Volunteer Army
Review: I bought Tauber's book while stationed at the 130th Gen Hosp in Nurnberg Germany in 1972. He accurately portrays basic training during the time period between the end of the draft (#35, first lottery) and VOLAR. Recently picked up copy in used book store and it brought back many memories of my basic training at Fort Campbell, KY in 1972. If you are an aging boomer who never was in the service or Nam and you never inhaled, you probably won't get this book. If you were in any of the above, you will get it and understand it. Has Tauber written any other books? I seem to recall one but it wasn't as good as this one.
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Summary: My story, too.
Review: I can hardly say how upset I was when I heard that Peter Tauber died the other day. As many other reviewers have said, he was me, in a lot of ways. We are about the same age, though he graduated from college two years before I did. He went to Basic right after college, as I did. My Basic was at Ft. Jackson, SC, and my culture shock probably starteed when I learned that the Jackson in question was not Ol' Andy, but Stonewall.
I, too, found myself on the other side of the looking glass. Here, I was, a recent graduate of Univ. of Wisconsin, taking orders form people of questionable literacy. I, too, considered keeping a journal, but was too terrorized by "them," not to mention too tired, to follow through.
If I can mention a subject no other reviewer has, to my knowledge, I found that the Jewish Chapel was an important haven for me as well. Not only was the food important, but the chance to be away from the company area from Friday night to Saturday night or even Sunday morning was my salvation.
Mr. Tauber's ventures through the literal and figurative mine fields of Basic were a lot like my own. We too, had sadistic DI's, buddies who escaped all work (one man dislocated his shoulder in week 1 and wound up guarding rifles and t-shirts for the rest of the time), and our own Norman Peyser-type, though our Baby Huey was neither from New York nor a Jew.
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Summary: This book stands out among the thousands I read in the 70's
Review: I loved this book. I was on the verge of joining the Navy, and Mr. Tauber's ireverent look at Basic training was an eye-opening experience. It is a very funny book, filled with loony real-life characters and examples of crazed military thinking. Anyone who has gone through military basic training will get a kick out of this book. I wish I still had my copy!
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Summary: Read the book while in Army Basic in 1972, its real.
Review: I read the Sunshine Soldiers while in Army Basic Training at Fort Ord, CA in 1972. It opened my eyes to what was ahead, and helped me keep my sense of humor. I loaned my copy to another soldier, and never saw it again. I've been looking since.
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Summary: the army's "got some 'splainin' to do"
Review: I thought this was an entertaining book, but I think I'd have enjoyed it more if I could have better placed it in context. By this, I mean that I didn't understand whether the type of Keystone Cops training that this group of reservists and what not received was the same as that given to more "regular" soldiers. If so, as Ricky might say to Lucy, the army's "got some 'splainin' to do." Troop levels in Vietnam were still high when this took place and it's hard to imagine putting people at risk with this kind of incompetent training. Having said that, the book is pretty funny if you overlook the pathetic training regimen. The author and several of his cohorts seemed to have a great time thumbing their noses at the discipline. I find it hard to imagine the army letting them get away with what the author says they did. But, if they did as he wrote they did, the army needs to answer Ricky's question. The rest of us are free to just enjoy the humor.
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Summary: the army's "got some 'splainin' to do"
Review: I thought this was an entertaining book, but I think I'd have enjoyed it more if I could have better placed it in context. By this, I mean that I didn't understand whether the type of Keystone Cops training that this group of reservists and what not received was the same as that given to more "regular" soldiers. If so, as Ricky might say to Lucy, the army's "got some 'splainin' to do." Troop levels in Vietnam were still high when this took place and it's hard to imagine putting people at risk with this kind of incompetent training. Having said that, the book is pretty funny if you overlook the pathetic training regimen. The author and several of his cohorts seemed to have a great time thumbing their noses at the discipline. I find it hard to imagine the army letting them get away with what the author says they did. But, if they did as he wrote they did, the army needs to answer Ricky's question. The rest of us are free to just enjoy the humor.
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Summary: I lent this book out and it never came back.
Review: I was a college senior in the Fall of 1969 ready to graduate at the end of the semester when the Draft Lottery was started and, guess what, I won with #21. I joined the Army National Guard on December 15, 1969 and reported to Fort Bragg in North Carolina on March 13, 1970 for Basic Training. It was an experience that I will never forget. When I read "Sunshine Soldiers" in 1971, I said to myself, "This guy was really there with me!" I wish I had the book today, but I lent it out to a "friend" who never returned it (sound familiar?). My son is now 18 and I wish I had a copy for him to read just so that he knows what to expect if he ever wants to join the military.
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