Them written by veterans of the vietnam war. National book award winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, classic works of nonfiction including probably a dozen or 15 or 20 war memoirs that stand with the best of the genre. As well as history analysis and so on. I just have a small list. Ive left off many but the ones that i thought of immediately that should be on anybodys book shelf who reads whos interested in the vietnam war as far as nonfiction Neil Sheehans book, a bright shining light. Philip caputo, david halverstans the best and the brightest, wallace terrys book blood, robert masons book chicken hawk, one of the first and best helicopter pilots memoirs. Lou puller, he was from virginia. That book won the Pulitzer Prize for autobiography. You know, he was chesty pullers son, he graduated from college in 1967 and what did he do . Yeah. He went to the marines. Can you imagine . And theres a great probably the best memoir by a woman is linda van zanters home before morning. She was a nurse in the vietnam war. Then theres tim obriens if i die in a combat zone, its nonfiction. Albert frenchs patches of fire is also another great memoir africanamerican vietnam veteran, and David Maraniss they. Marched into sunlight. And thats only the nonfiction top of the list. As far as fiction, you know weve had Pulitzer Prize winners like Robert Butler connected series of short stories each one told in the voice of a vietnamese expatriot living if louisiana. A brilliant book. Larry heinemans close quarters, an autobiographical novel, and larry also wrote tacos story in 1987. Robert stone, who just died this year, his book, dog soldiers, right up there on vietnam hut church richard currys fatal light. Like danny, he was a Navy Corpsman with the marines, and its brilliant. Jim webb, our former senator, you know he wrote several novels one of which was fields of fire one of the first and best incountry vietnam war novels. And then tim obrien who i guess, is sort of the gold standard. The National Book award but the things they carried, which is just which has just turned into a phenomenon, you know high school my son read it in high school, College Students read it in those Community Read things. That should be on the top of your list, the things they carried. Gus hasford wrote two really good novels that you may have heard of, the phantom blooper was one, the other was the shorttimers which became the movie full metal jacket. He was also a marine. And article marine, carl marlantes wrote matterhorn that came out in 2010 and it is a brilliant novel. And going all the way back to Graham Greenes the quiet american from 1955. So we have a long, a long history, and that brings us to todays panel made up of all of us here served in the vietnam war, all of these men have written exceptional books about the vietnam war. Id like to introduce them to you, and then well get started. Well, beyond what you have you have in your introduction. Danny lliteras like i said served as a Navy Corpsman with the marines. I think you probably know that the army had medics, right . You all know what medics were. Well marines didnt have their own medics, they called them corpsmen, and they served in the u. S. Navy. Did i get that right . Ive got two marines and a navy guy who served with the marines surrounding me here. And Bob Tecklenburg on my left wrote a terrific pell worry about memoir about his time as a marine in the vietnam war and going back in two trips in 02 and 03 as well as talking about the civilian program that he was a part of. Maybe the well, i cant editorialize, but maybe it was the one thing that worked in the vietnam war. And bob tim bearing who went to nap tim bearing and then he opted to go into the marine corps, we wont hold that against him. [laughter] all three of these guys were wounded in the war. Bob was severely wounded. He made a career in journalism. He was a big journalist in washington, started out in annapolis, baltimore and then washington and has written several great books including his memoir which stands up there with the best of them. Its one of its a terrific book. So, you know one last thing id like to say is as Vietnam Veterans were very pleased to be here, and were very pleased that the book festival has a panel devoted to literature of our war. And i would just like to say that i think you all know this, that Vietnam Veterans did not have the greatest time when we came home from the war. We sort of had to shrink back home. And its slink back home. Its changed for the better, but i dont think its ever too late. Id like to ask all the Vietnam Veterans in the audience to stand up, please, and be recognized. [applause] okay, sit down [laughter] so were going to get were going to start with putting each of our panelists in the vietnam war because you all know, im sure, that listen, there were about 28 million american men in the vietnam war generation. Only about 2. 8 million served in country during the war. So the way that that, the way that it happened that each one of us went over there, we each have our own story. So ill start with danny, and tell me how you got into the navy, and well move on from there. Okay. Im going to can you hear me . Okay great. Before i do that, though, im going to pull a fast one on mark here, and i just wanted to met you all know that, you know, mark is the veteran of the war page for the vietnam generations magazine goto book okay . And, you know, its a column hes been doing this review column, and hes really an authority of war, war literature, especially the vietnam war literature. And his contribution to the American Literary culture is inchannel, and i mean that incalculable, and i mean that. He is unquestionably the authority of vietnam war literature, and its really an honor to be here with him, and i just want you to know who this man really is, you know, in the vietnam war literature world. And finally, i want to say its an honor to be with bob timberg and Bob Tecklenburg. Its a real privilege with being here, theyre great men. Sorry about these, guys, i had to say this. Did you read it the way i wrote it . [laughter] shucks. Listen, i graduated from high school in 67 and, you know, the draft was in full bloom. I knew i was going in. I knew i was going to get tapped for the draft, so what did i do . As soon as i turned 18, i went to the Navy Recruiter joined up. I said, hey, i want to be a hospital corpsman. The enthusiasm was just unbelievable. I said, i didnt know that this was going to be a fast track from the navy into the marine corps and then vietnam. So thats, thats how i got in there. This kind of leads me to the very opening of my book where im actually getting out of an airplane in da nang, and i dont even know im going to be in first recon yet okay . Im going to read this little segment to you. I found myself in a place called da nang after stepping off a plane filled with faceless characters like myself. Yeah, i remember. I lit a cigarette feeling pretty froggy about myself. I was a doc i was a hospital corpsman the medical man load been attached to the last two years. I figured id end up running a sick call and cleaning out the earwax of halfdeaf marines who blew up the countryside. I had it all figured up, but my figures didnt add up when i heard we were all going to the grunts. A combat corpsmans Life Expectancy is two weeks in the bankrupts, one of us said. I was screwed. I knew there was no one to complain to who mattered or cared. We were all in it, whatever in it was. We were all scared. We were all thinking about this thing called combat. I concentrated on my cigarette, and i studied the approaching jeep that first zigged and then zagged recklessly in our direction. The brakes screeched when the vehicle stopped. Its passenger, a notable rate on his collar, stood up to address us as the driver cut off the engine. Im chief toadty, and i need five volunteers for first recon. Well several somebodies chuckled, and new smokes were lit. Then a ragged cynical laughter erupted and enveloped us like a fog wrapping around a new kind of collective creature shifting its way to one side with corresponding dismay. Go on, chief, a member of the collective creature taunted, those guys are crazy. Whats crazy, said the chief . Another member of the creature sneered, i aint joining no recon to get myself killed. Maybe youre already killed son. Although i didnt step forward i didnt speak the creatures language. First recons are they like the kind of outfit where, you know you find john wayne . Manager like that, said the Something Like that, said the chief. And he had a smirk i trusted. The kind that didnt give a damn if you believed him or not. And that, and that kind that didnt care how you thought. Ill go, i said. Nervous jives and harmless jeers assaulted me. The creature recoiled from my position as one of its members addressed me. Joining that outfit is a death sentence brother. Yeah . Well, if im going to go, im going to go like john wayne. I hope i hopped into the back of the jeep after throwing my sea bag onboard, felt as reckless as the jeep was when it lurched forward and swerved away from the bewildered huddled of men awaiting their fate as unknown as mine. The countryside left no impression on me. I took a hard final drag from my smoke and flicked the smoldering butt into the road and leaned against my seatback feeling pretty satisfied. Id done something that changed the course of my life, and it felt good. Until that moment i had responded to a set of orders and a stack of plane tickets. I had accumulated a pile of arrival and departures. I had flowed in one direction then another without introspection or perspective. I had been there and i had been here and until finally i was going somewhere i had volunteered to go to, each though i did not know where this somewhere was. But this somewhere was mine and i was going to it by choice, and that felt real good for a change. Thank you danny. Bob timbrg, do you want to get us to you to vietnam . Sure. Hello, over there. Can i stand up here . Theres all those people i cant even see. Does this work . Yeah. Hello folks. I mean, i feel like after keeping you waiting the least we can do is like, a rockettes number instead of parading [laughter] you know, four over the hill Vietnam Veterans in front of you. You know, one thing you should know about dannys troop, you know something not many people know the marine corps recon outfit is. If you think the marines are tough, recon is tougher. Much tougher. Theyre known as snake eaters which is the charming way that theyre viewed. And thats what danny was doing. I mean danny didnt i mean he just stumbled into it, right . This was not a act of great courage. [laughter] i mean, it would have been if you knew what it was right . I guess. [laughter] right. I mean, i sure as hell wouldnt have done it. At any rate, how did can i get here . How did i get here in didnt somebody say that, what am i doing that . Jim stockdale when he was running with ross perot. What am i doing here . What am i doing here . Where am i . Okay im i was i was an improbable marine. At least from the standpoint of you know going to the Naval Academy and going to war. My father and more were both show business people. My father was a musician, a composer. He wrote a lot of the background music for the Famous Studio cartoons like betty boop and popeye and olive oyl. And my mother was a zig fed girl. We did not have a military tradition in our family. And i, you know why i went to the Naval Academy were a couple of reasons. Number one was and i hesitate to mention this because it sounds really really clunky but i really did have a desire to serve my country. The orr thing, another thing the other thing another thing was my family was all screwed up. I mean, i made it to 12 different schools before i got to high school. And i sort of blamed my father for a lot of things which i since realize i was wrong about. But what i did think about was that he was very weak and corrupt to be weak. I didnt want to be weak. I dont want to be my father. My parents had already broken up by then, and so i i wanted to get out. I was going to college. I had done well, i got into a great high school. But i wanted to get out of my home, and i didnt but i couldnt because i had two younger sisters, and i worried about them because my mother was an alcoholic. So i was trapped. And then i thought about a Service Academy and thought, well, you know, you go into a theres not that many. Of theres only one or two service academies. If youre going to go to annapolis, theres a Naval Academy, youve got to go to annapolis. You cant go to your local college which i did for a year. So i applied then went to the Naval Academy and spent four years there, and at a certain point late in my time i decided i wanted to be a marine. Which was not a lot of thought went into it. I did like the idea that young marine officers would be leading troops as opposed to Young Navy Officers who would be trying to figure out currents and wind and stuff like that. And finally, you know, there was i sort of tell this is a story about my roommate. Those of us at the Naval Academy who decided we were going to go into the marine corps and there were probably like 10 , were viewed as fools, fools at best. And, you know, once we made, we were getting ready to make our decision and we had let it be known that we were going into the marine corps they just couldnt stop, our friends couldnt stop jeering us. And getting plebes to play tricks on us. And my roommate was one of the worst. He was absolutely one of the worst. But the day before, the night before we had service selection, we had to go down and say what are you going to do, and you say marine or you say navy my friend dave wilson said give me one good reason to go marine corps. Pleasure and i said, well, you get your weekend withs off. And he said, thats it, im going, and he did. [laughter] thats how much thought a lot of us gave to what we did, you know . And we can all give a lot of long and windy like this, explanation. But, you know, we were kids. We didnt know what the hell we were doing. I certainly didnt. At any rate, thats how i got in the marine corps, and all marines went t to vietnam. Tom . Well, when i was right out of high school in 1967 i i volunteered for the draft and joined the marine corps for two years. I think. Its still a little haze su, you know . I cant believe i did that. But i ended up in the marine corps as a marine corps infantryman. And this was in 1967. And on my way to vietnam, they pulled me out of the line and sent me to Language School in monterey, california, and they said well youre going to learn vietnamese. Youve got 12 weeks. So i learned vietnamese, and i thought, wow, you know maybe thatll help me when i get to vietnam. Well, it didnt. They still sent me to an infantry unit i served i started out in the 27th marine infantryman as a basic rifleman but the language figures prominently because everywhere i went i always said hey listen you know i can speak a little vietnamese. What kind of job can you find for me thats not as a rifleman . And so the first, my first shot at that was my platoon commander brought out the they were called kit carson scouts. They were vietnamese, usually former viet cong who served with an infantry outfit to help em figure out, speak the language and going down trails, that sort of thing. They used what they called kit carson scouts. Anyway, this kit carson scout said four or five words to me, you know just like he would and i have no idea what he said so i just smiled, turned around and walked away, you know . So i stayed in the infantry until i was wounded. As a casualty, i had heard about the combined Action Program when i was back in Language School. And so i volunteered for it. And so theyre always looking for somebody who will volunteer for anything, you know . So they said sure well send you. So they sent me to a combined action platoon, and thats a very uniquely marine outfit. Its only served in i corp. Between 65 and 71, and what the marine corps did is they took a squad of marines, Navy Corpsmen and a platoon of Popular Force soldiers, and they put us in a village. And it was our job to secure that village, provide security and defense, work with all friendly units in the area and provide civic Action Programs and try to and train the vietnamese soldiers and also to try to pacify that is, to try to win hearts and minds as they said in the village area. We worked close by with the 101st airborne and other units in my area which was my village was located between da nang and fubai right along the coastal plain in vietnam. So i spent the next eight months serving there first in one unit, one camp unit in a village and then i was transferred to another village when that cap team were wiped out in an ambush one night. So they had to pull people from different units to form a new cap. So i went to that unit. And so i served in the combined Action Program from december of 68 until august of 69. And before i finish, i just want to add that what became our most important civic Action Program was our med cap. We had a corpsman and he provided we actually worked him to death, because he provided medical care to Vietnamese Civilians in the village on a daily basis. So, and i think that the combined Action Program made serving in vietnam more worthwhile than i think it would have been if i had done, if i had survived full tour in an infantry unit. So this that sense in that sense i feel good about my service as a c. A. P. Marine, but it left me with,