The Sunshine Soldiers

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Summary: Where have all "The Sunshine Soldiers" gone?
Review: It is great to hear that every person who has picked up this classic period-piece has loved it as much as I have. I found my copy in my parent's attic in our suburban New York City home. My father was in U.S.Army in the late 50's and I'm sure he purchased it to remind him of his own days of basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey. I have to say that it was one of my most memorable reads during my high school years. It is a funny and insightful story of an urbanites journey through army basic training in scorching Texas during the height of the Vietnam War. The story is tinged with wit, sarcasm and a sense of hopelessness surrounding our involvement in that most unpopular of military conflicts. It also showed the brutal mind games that must at times be played out by both the establishment(D.I.'s) and the recruits. Peter Tauber, the author, is truly a gifted and eloquent writer and I wish that he would pen more wonderful books like "The Sunshine Soldiers." Everyone who reads it will most definitely enjoy it!

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Summary: Basic Training: A Horrific Waste of a Superior Man's Time
Review: It was a terrible crime for this author ever to be forced to endure the Army's basic training. He was obviously so much more intelligent than everyone else in the group -- and stunningly moreso than any of the Army instructors he encountered -- that it was detrimental to the world for him to be removed from civilian life for any period of time and subjected to this nonsensical military slavery. His book thoroughly illuminates the inferiority so rampant in the armed forces, his musical prose sparing no one the castigation warranted in the circumstances. This was an excellent "revenge" book, even better than "Mommy Dearest," exposing the scrofulous stupidity of our soldier class in the context of torturous inconvenience endured bravely by the author -- a thoroughly superior being who definitely should never have been required to wear any variety of United States Armed Forces uniform.

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Summary: SNAFU, I LIVED IT AND SURVIVED
Review: It wasn't until after I was discharged from the Army in 1972 that I read this book. I picked it up because the title and the cover art caught my eye. I think it was the peace sign...little did I know I was picking up a book about the very same basic training company I was in. I always wondered what the man was doing constantly writing in that journal of his...in retrospect it was hilarious, and dead on the way it was. For years I've wanted to thank him for a great read, a great memory. If you can ever find a copy of it...you'll have a great time with it...

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Summary: The Sunshine Soldiers
Review: Leaving for Navy Basic Training in September of 1973 I needed some reading material. The cover art of this book caught my eye and once I started reading I couldn't put it down. A M.A.S.H. for my generation or even better a survival guide to Basic Training. I reread the book many times until I lost it to a friend who was on his way to Army Basic Training for the Reserves just as Mr. Tauber was. I hope it helped him as it helped me. A great read and example of just what the military was like during the Vietnam Era from an author who like many of us was a peacenik trying to do the right thing.

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Summary: A personal journal about army basic training in the sixties
Review: Peter Tauber's The Sunshine Soldiers is a personal journal about army basic training in the sixties, and of a war in Viet Nam that crushed American political innocence. Written with wry humor, a deadpan delivery, and an ironic insight into the crush of conflict and survival, The Sunshine Soldiers is a fascinating read that keeps the reader hooked all the way through. The Sunshine Soldiers is highly recommended for its ability to entertainingly engage the reader while dealing with such seemingly unfunny subject matter as a generational challenge to American political and military authoritarianism.

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Summary: Reprint this book!
Review: Still one of, if not THE, funniest book I've ever read

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Summary: Exactly what I went through in 1970
Review: The following story is a good example of what this book is about. When I went to basic training in the fall of 1970, I was told to never volunteer. I broke this code once. The first time on the rifle range, the Captain in charge said, " who here has never shot a gun?" Myself and three other Jews raised our hands.

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Summary: Been there, done that.
Review: When I was in Boot Camp in 1978, I was loaned a copy and it really hit home. Over the years I've lost copies of this book and after finding another, it's always a great joy to reread it. Very funny.