Don's Nam

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Summary: Orient Express Re-Visited
Review: As a driver for the Orient express 10th and 534th truck companies in 1966-67, I can certainly relate to the excellent compilation that Don has penned. It is actual, factual, and just plains tells it like it was. I recommend it to anyone who desires a well documented view of the daily challenges that were experienced.

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Summary: A Vietnam Veteran's Perspective of the Orient Express
Review: Don's Nam is an excellent book describing the daily experiences of the men of the 534th Transportation Co. This is a must reading for all those interested in this not-so-popular political war of Vietnam. The fire fights, ambushes, and sweep patrols were described about as vividly and accurately as you can get. Thank you for reporting the events and situations that have been pushed far back in our minds. You have, I am sure, helped many of your readers recall, relive, and rethink their experiences in Vietnam. The book along with the photographs provides a way for us veterans to share our experiences with our spouses and children and perhaps help them to understand us better. Every word you have written is so meaningful to me, since I served with you during part of your tour of duty, and can personally vouch for the authenticity of the events you described. The last time I saw you was 30 years ago in a rice paddy on patrol outside of Long Binh, and to find you alive, well, and on the Internet, was quite a suprise. God bless you. Christoper Cross---Vietnam, Oct. 68-Nov. 69.

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Summary: A Vietnam Veteran's Perspective of the Orient Express
Review: DON'S NAM, "about the beginning of the end of the United States involvement in Vietnam from a junior officer's perspective on a conscious and subconscious level," bristles with passion, compassion, wry wit, and plainspoken authority. This powerful and original portrait of one man's odyssey is filled with selfless acts of bravery, outrageous shenanigans, extraordinary courage, and insightful wisdom. Rast's voice is as eloquent and compelling as any that has yet risen from the ashes of the debacle in Vietnam. Rippling with authenticity, Don Rast's DON'S NAM should be on everyone's top-10 list of "Must-Read Vietnam War Books." An epic adventure, Don Rast's DON'S NAM should also be on every Hollywood director's top-10 list of "Books That Would Be Great Movies." Sincerely, Diana Dell, author, "A Saigon Party" and "Memories Are Like Clouds."

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Summary: DON'S NAM....Its reality!!!!
Review: Even though I was just a young kid when America was fighting the war in Vietnam, the subject always fascinated me. Guess I've read about every book regarding to Vietnam that shows up on the bookshelf, each time getting more and more of the same thing, firefights with statistics and who got killed or wounded with how many of the enemy we disposed of in the process; frustrated military leaders held back by red-tape, evasive politicians misleading the public into thinking the war was to support a democratic Saigon government. This is all just great but somehow the true feelings, bitterness, sorrows, fears, humor and doubts evaded my conception of the war until I read Rast's story from his diary along with the pictures he took. The events he describes stayed with me and they stuck. I felt like I was right there with him and I kept going back into chapters in the book and rereading them with different feelings each time. There is a little bit of all of us in his characters, situations and the emotions they display: maybe that is why it feels so real to read and see something about the war I never experienced before.

Rating:
Summary: Don's Nam
Review: Even though I was just a young kid when America was fighting the war in Vietnam, the subject always fascinated me. Guess I've read about every book regarding Vietnam that shows up on the bookshelf, each time getting more of the same thing-firefights with statistics, people who got killed or wounded coupled with how many of the enemy we wiped out in the process; frustrated military leaders held back by the red-tape, evasive politicians misleading the public into thinking the war was to support a democratic Saigon government. This is all just great but somehow the true feelings, bitterness, sorrows, fears, humor and doubts evaded my conception of the war until I read Rast's story from his diary along with the pictures he took. The events he describes stayed with me and they stuck, I felt like I was right there with him and I kept going back to chapters in the book and rereading them with different feelings each time. Theres a little bit of all of us in his characters and the situations and emotions they display: maybe that is why it feels so real to read and see something about the war I never experienced before.

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Summary: This is reality
Review: First of all, I am a member of Lt Don's platoon from the 379th Trans Co. Reading about our experiences gave me some laffs, a few tears and a lot of goosebumps ! Lt. Don has captured the absurdity, streaks of madness and overall experience of the convoy truckers of the Nam (unsung heroes). He tells of the maturing of young boys into men (American & Vietnamese alike). His insights into east/west philosophies, the politics of the day and the plight of everyman should be required reading.

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Summary: Recommended For Readers Who've Never Been To War
Review: Franklin Rast's memoir Don's Nam is a coming-of-age story set in the context of the Viet Nam war. A lot of these have surely been written, and quite a few published. This one, however, is unique. It's subject and structure make it the ideal introduction to the Viet Nam experience for the uninitiated.

The "war" part of the book has an unusually effective structure. The author was a lieutenant (translation: a member of the one class of officers who actually had to get out in the field and do the dirty work) in the transportation corps during the war. He tells the story of leading repeated supply convoy trips into the depths of Vietnam's jungles. Sometimes these are funny. Sometimes they're routine. Occasionally they're harrowing. Whatever the details of the individual trip, however, the familiar context of truck driving, an almost mythical American activity, is always there to "anchor" the story to something familiar, even as events veer into the exotic, the bizarre, or the terrible. The recurring element of sudden, unpredictable danger characteristic of war stories isn't undermined in this book by the sense of unreality that readers with no military background often experience when they read of such events.

And in between the convoys there is downtime at the base. Here the familiar American culture,60s style, reasserts itself, incongruously enough, in the middle of a Far Eastern jungle. As officers, non coms, and men interact through the course of the memoir, Rast gradually uncovers the incredible tensions that existed inside this insular world - above all the clash of interests and values that took place every day between "lifers" and draftees. The memoirist, an unusual combination of north Louisiana "good old boy"/ROTC zealot and budding '60s cynic, moves adroitly between the lifer and draftee subcultures, and it is amusing to watch his language, and even his attitudes, change to meet the demands of the moment.

In these scenes, as always, the dialogue in the book is excellent! Mr. Rast has a fine ability to reproduce everyday American speech, especially the half-humorous, half-hostile exchanges of men who live and work together in constant fear of their lives. He also masters the much more difficult task of rendering the voices of the VietNamese whom he encounters with clarity, sympathy, and dignity. In fact, this is one of the joys of the book Rast's exploration of a culture and people that he does not know yet always respects.

What finally becomes apparent as one reads Don's Nam is that the memoirist who manages to pull off these difficult feats is an unusual man. He's full of contradictions. He's a regular guy from the redneck part of Louisiana who possesses an abiding interest in philosophy and eastern religion. He's an extravert with has a natural ability to relate to people of all classes and nationalities, and at the same time he has an alert and questioning mind that takes everything they say with a grain of salt. In the course of the book he builds a preliminary understanding of the world and the war from all of their inputs, particularly that of the Vietnamese, and learns to live with the ambiguities that remain

Leonard W. Martin Editorial Excellence (freelance editor of literary, academic, business and legal manuscripts)

Rating:
Summary: Don's Nam
Review: Just completed reading the book Don's Nam. Having served in the "Orient Express" with the 47th trans part of the 64 QM "Petro-Main" 7th trans bn 48th GP 1969-70. I think Don Rast has done an excellant job with presenting a realistic account of transportation units and the stress of convoying in combat zones of Vietnam. A book like this has been long over due.

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Summary: A Classic of Comic Absurdity
Review: Reviewer: David A. Willson, author of REMF Diary, The REMF Returns and In the Army Now

In my role as a Vietnam War literature bibliographer, I have read hundreds of books dealing with the war. Most of the memoirs and novels are junk or the same basic book over again. Rast's book is not junk. There is no other Vietnam War book even a little bit like it. His lively narrative (from an Army lieutenant's point of view) deals with 1969-70, when Nixon was taking his time withdrawing the U.S. from the war. The subject is the extremely hazardous job of convoy commander assigned to the "Orient Express," the 534th and 379th Transportation Companies, 7th Transportation Battalion. Rast has written a unique and fascinating book filled with comic absurdity, phantasmagoric scenes and believable characters of all ranks and races. And he includes the Vietnamese, unlike the authors of most Vietnam War memoirs and novels. The insanity of the war has never been better explored and exploded. I highly recommend Don's Nam.

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Summary: Eye Opening and one hell of a rollercoaster ride
Review: What a remarkable experience. "Don's Nam" was an eye opener for me. I am a retired Navy Veteran of twenty-years. I enlisted into the Navy after the Vietnam war, and didn't know much about it. What an eye opener. It's a book that you don't want to put down. Don's vivid accounts of events and experiences was remarkable. Orient Express is must reading for everyone who has even the remote interest in the Vietnam War.