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Rating: 
Summary: Up Close Viet Nam Memoirs
Review: First of all, let me confess that my remarks are not entirely objective since I was a member of Captain Jackson's Mike Company during his command. His recollections are far clearer than mine, perhaps due to our very different stations. You see, Captain Jackson was a 30 year-old Marine officer with six years experience, while I was a 19 year-old PFC and LCpl, operating as a grunt rifleman and radioman in "Mike-2-Charlie."I was fascinated by Jackson's account the circumstances leading up to his entry in the Marines, and his very remarkable career as an officer prior to his tour in Viet Nam. Captain Jackson provides the reader with a clear picture of life in Mike Company in those days, although from a quite different perspective than I had. One difference of opinion I have with the author is his assessment of my Platoon Commander. Captain Jackson describes an incident in which the Lieutenant beats a Marine on the back with a steel bar, but dismisses the event as the officer merely trying to admonish the young man without really inflicting any pain. Well, I witnessed more than one incident where this officer either kicked or beat men in the head with a steel helmet in his hand. The opinion of the men under his command was that this "warrior" was a vicious and arrogant prima donna. While the book will be quite interesting to students of the war in Viet Nam or those who were participants, the very poor (or nonexistent) editing done by the book's publisher is quite distracting. Virtually every page contains errors in punctuation, spelling, word usage, etc. My background as a Mike Company Marine serving under Captain Jackson allowed me to easily ignore these small issues. All in all, a very interesting and readable book.
Rating:
Summary: Up Close Viet Nam Memoirs
Review: First of all, let me confess that my remarks are not entirely objective since I was a member of Captain Jackson's Mike Company during his command. His recollections are far clearer than mine, perhaps due to our very different stations. You see, Captain Jackson was a 30 year-old Marine officer with six years experience, while I was a 19 year-old PFC and LCpl, operating as a grunt rifleman and radioman in "Mike-2-Charlie." I was fascinated by Jackson's account the circumstances leading up to his entry in the Marines, and his very remarkable career as an officer prior to his tour in Viet Nam. Captain Jackson provides the reader with a clear picture of life in Mike Company in those days, although from a quite different perspective than I had. One difference of opinion I have with the author is his assessment of my Platoon Commander. Captain Jackson describes an incident in which the Lieutenant beats a Marine on the back with a steel bar, but dismisses the event as the officer merely trying to admonish the young man without really inflicting any pain. Well, I witnessed more than one incident where this officer either kicked or beat men in the head with a steel helmet in his hand. The opinion of the men under his command was that this "warrior" was a vicious and arrogant prima donna. While the book will be quite interesting to students of the war in Viet Nam or those who were participants, the very poor (or nonexistent) editing done by the book's publisher is quite distracting. Virtually every page contains errors in punctuation, spelling, word usage, etc. My background as a Mike Company Marine serving under Captain Jackson allowed me to easily ignore these small issues. All in all, a very interesting and readable book.
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