Rating: 
Summary: striking up a conversation
Review: This book does have something going for it, but not a lot. You do get at clear picture of what Mr Ketwig went through, but he complains from cover to cover. A few times I wanted to throw the book into the garbage. With the amount of disdain he has for the USA he should have stayed in Thailand.
Rating: 
Summary: want a real insight into Vietnam do NOT read this one!!
Review: This is the only piece of Military history, i have EVER put down after less than 6 chapters! the Reason??.... there wasn't one single episode recounted by Ketwig, of his time in the republic of vietnam, that couldn't have been written by, any other service member serving between 65-72, with a good memory, and acess to returnees, or those on "in-country R&R". this book amounts to nothing but a mass of whining drivel interspersed with "barracks room tales" that I (the 26 year old son of a Vietnam Era vet, raised around the military) have been hearing from the mouths of hundreds since i was too young to know fact from fiction. do NOT buy this book!! if you MUST have an account of vietnam, get either or both "We Were Soldiers Once and Young..." by Harold Moore and Joseph Galloway, And/Or "Blood On the risers" by John Leppelman.
Rating:
Summary: Argument for a Volunteer Military
Review: What a suck-up piece of work. John Ketwig's ..."And a hard rain fell" presents a perfect argument for an all-volunteer military, to reduce the number of whiner's. Ketwig opposed the war prior to serving in Vietnam, during the war and after the war. His treatise is nothing more than an attempt to come to terms with his emotional experiences. There is nothing in ..."And a hard rain fell" that focuses on strategic aspects of the war. I too served in Vietnam, supported the war, and continue to believe that but for poor civilian leadership, the war was winnable. Can anyone believe that Ketwig would have a battlefield experience that would change his pre-Vietnam views? Yes -- war is hell and aside from a major world conflict, Ketwig makes an excellent argument for an all-volunteer military. Concerning his serving in Thailand after leaving Vietnam, I wonder if he would have done so if he had a significant other waiting for him in "the world." To me, he only went to Thailand to be close to a hooker who stole his inexperienced heart. I thought I would throw-up reading the last chapter. Has Ketwig ever been inside a VA hospital? Were is the evidence that large numbers of American children expect to witness nuclear war in their lifetimes? If the reader truly wants an insight into how a draftee who opposed the war from the start thinks, this book is for you. I respect Mr. Ketwig for serving in Vietnam. However, I am disgusted that he makes no mention that the average Vietnamese still has not experienced "freedom' nearly 30 years since South Vietnam fell, and that over 80,000 civilians and former military men were murdered by the North Vietnamese communists. For those who know - they will find this book disgusting. For those who don't know much about America's involvement in South Vietnam, this book will only add to your confusion. Mr. Ketwig might try his hand at writing novels instead of crying about how unjust the United States government treats the world.
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