Shadows on the Wall

Rating:
Summary: Shadows is Fantasy
Review: Stan Krasnoff's tale 'Shadows on the Wall' is at best a piece of fiction, which is tied together with pieces of fantasy. Firstly, the then Captain Krasnoff was not in Vietnam during operation Rapid Fire IV. He did not get to Saigon until 5 December 1967. His participation in Rapid Fire Operations was limited to five patrols that amounted to less than 24 hours in the field. Copies of the official after action reports from these patrols do not match Krasnoff's hyperbole, especially the 'heart yammering' action where he allegedly killed the enemy soldier in the 'spider hole'. Krasnoff has made basic errors of description throughout the novel and some of his Acronyms are wrong. Shadows on the wall does not live up to its extravagant promotion. At best the words are a promotional tease written by someone with not one iota of knowledge about special forces operations in Vietnam and at worst it is a deliberate misleading of the reading public. False advertising, if you will. The book should be treated as a tale based around some actual events, but Shadows on the wall should never make it to the history or reference shelves of any library. In the telling of a story that needs no embellishment, this writer has done himself a disservice. It is a sloppy book.