An Accidental Soldier: Memoir of a Mestizo in Vietnam

Rating:
Summary: A thoughtful and emotional read
Review: Accidental Soldier is an intense, compelling, and graphic story of a young man surviving combat in Vietnam. There is a lot of raw, graphic combat experience and language from the perspective of an 18 year old soldier. There is also a lot of reflection on that experience by the 50 year old veteran. The result is a vivid and emotional narrative.

Garcia reflects on his and others acts of cruelty, his own moral and emotional detachment, and the irrationality and insanity of combat. In addition he sprinkles his story with reflections on why the war was not winnable from the beginning. Many of these are relevant to our current military involvements in Iraq and Afghanistan. Garcia also raises moral dilemmas for those of us who have never been in the military or experienced combat.

Garcia's "tour of duty" ends when his squad is ambushed, two of his men die, and he is seriously wounded. Garcia tells us about the irony of receiving a Silver Star with Valor for his actions in that ambush. "I was given a Silver Star for failing to read an ambush. I was responsible for my squad members being wounded or killed because I failed to read that ambush. .... I was responsible for our walk into that mess and I was only trying to get us out. It was a mistake, not valor."

In the end Garcia throws his Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, Army Commendation Medal, Vietnamese Cross of gallantry, and Purple heart on to the lawn of the White House. I witnessed a similar act in April 1972 on the steps of the capitol building in Washington, D.C. during a massive anti-war demonstration. Garcia did it alone, on a dark night, as a private, personal statement. It is clear that the seeds of the mature Garcia were blooming in the young discharged combat veteran.

Garcia's war experiences are preceded by brief accounts of his early childhood in the San Luis Valley of Colorado, and his adolescence in Salt Lake City. His experiences as a Mexican-American in a white man's world, and as a gentile in a Mormon world. His relationship and experiences within his family. The book closes with Garcia's post combat experiences, the awakening of his mestizo consciousness, and his eventual life as a criminal defense attorney in Salt Lake City. I find these stories as worthy as Garcia's memoir of combat.

The book closes with a comment on the Vietnam War Memorial. "I haven't been back to the federal District to see the Vietnam War Memorial that hard dark autographed slab of granite that protrudes from a gash in the heart of the nation. I don't have to see it. I know it."

Rating:
Summary: A thoughtful and emotional read
Review: Accidental Soldier is an intense, compelling, and graphic story of a young man surviving combat in Vietnam. There is a lot of raw, graphic combat experience and language from the perspective of an 18 year old soldier. There is also a lot of reflection on that experience by the 50 year old veteran. The result is a vivid and emotional narrative.

Garcia reflects on his and others acts of cruelty, his own moral and emotional detachment, and the irrationality and insanity of combat. In addition he sprinkles his story with reflections on why the war was not winnable from the beginning. Many of these are relevant to our current military involvements in Iraq and Afghanistan. Garcia also raises moral dilemmas for those of us who have never been in the military or experienced combat.

Garcia's "tour of duty" ends when his squad is ambushed, two of his men die, and he is seriously wounded. Garcia tells us about the irony of receiving a Silver Star with Valor for his actions in that ambush. "I was given a Silver Star for failing to read an ambush. I was responsible for my squad members being wounded or killed because I failed to read that ambush. .... I was responsible for our walk into that mess and I was only trying to get us out. It was a mistake, not valor."

In the end Garcia throws his Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, Army Commendation Medal, Vietnamese Cross of gallantry, and Purple heart on to the lawn of the White House. I witnessed a similar act in April 1972 on the steps of the capitol building in Washington, D.C. during a massive anti-war demonstration. Garcia did it alone, on a dark night, as a private, personal statement. It is clear that the seeds of the mature Garcia were blooming in the young discharged combat veteran.

Garcia's war experiences are preceded by brief accounts of his early childhood in the San Luis Valley of Colorado, and his adolescence in Salt Lake City. His experiences as a Mexican-American in a white man's world, and as a gentile in a Mormon world. His relationship and experiences within his family. The book closes with Garcia's post combat experiences, the awakening of his mestizo consciousness, and his eventual life as a criminal defense attorney in Salt Lake City. I find these stories as worthy as Garcia's memoir of combat.

The book closes with a comment on the Vietnam War Memorial. "I haven't been back to the federal District to see the Vietnam War Memorial that hard dark autographed slab of granite that protrudes from a gash in the heart of the nation. I don't have to see it. I know it."

Rating:
Summary: An emotive, poetic and suprisingly humorous Vietnam memoir
Review: His experiences make it a good story; his writing style make it a great read!! I read it in one sitting. When the subject gets very serious ( as war accounts get), Manny injects his dry humour and I found myself laughing out loud!!
This is a MUST read for anyone living with or related to a military veteran.

Rating:
Summary: An emotive, poetic and suprisingly humorous Vietnam memoir
Review: This is the life of Manny Garcia a soldier who experienced war before life.
The book details the youth of a Chicano devoid of the American Dream.
He becomes a specialized Ranger in the 101st Airborne Division onto a point man in the front line of jungle warfare.
The details of the war are harrowing yet the account moves you to laughter as much as to tears.
The descriptive passages of the jungle are pure poetry.
The writing is good, so good that the soldier becomes a friend and you care what happens to him and to all the others you meet in the horror of war.

Rating:
Summary: Fast and Deadly
Review: What better time to read this passionate and harrowing story of a young soldier in combat than right now when the Army special forces have carried the day in Iraq? Manny Garcia was trained to do this same kind of killing work. We read of the glory in the headlines. Garcia tells us what it was really like, the tragedy, the treachery -- and the gallantry. His narrative is chillingly true and it moves with the speed of an M-16 bullet and the keenness of a sharpened steel blade. The tale is of Vietnam. It's applicability is yesterday and tomorrow.

Rating:
Summary: Fast and Deadly
Review: What better time to read this passionate and harrowing story of a young soldier in combat than right now when the Army special forces have carried the day in Iraq? Manny Garcia was trained to do this same kind of killing work. We read of the glory in the headlines. Garcia tells us what it was really like, the tragedy, the treachery -- and the gallantry. His narrative is chillingly true and it moves with the speed of an M-16 bullet and the keenness of a sharpened steel blade. The tale is of Vietnam. It's applicability is yesterday and tomorrow.