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(More customer reviews)Do not be puzzled by the title of this memoir: it is perfect. The author was a "grunt" during the late unpleasantness in Vietnam, one of the kids who actually did the fighting (and they were kids). They had few illusions about what they were doing and precious little knowledge of why. Yet they did what they were told to do for the most part, risked their lives, all too often lost their lives or were wounded, and received little or no thanks for it from a "grateful" nation, irony intended, to this day. The protected indeed did not know much about their valor, still do not know, and, we now know, were probably not even protected, nor needed protecting. It's an excellent time for that nation to look back on the event and ponder it.
Mr. Meyer, prompted by a post-service GI Bill English class, compiled the material from a journal he had kept at the time and letters to folks back home and created a narrative of his experiences in Vietnam. Uncertain what to do with it, he set it aside for more than 20 years. He credits his daughter for motivating him to do something with it. He published it, and we should all be thankful.
The book is a fresh and riveting account of what it was like to actually be on the front lines of that sad episode in our history, told by one who was there and in the style of one who was there at the time. This is not polished prose but it is highly readable. I actually hated to put it down when I had to. There is no plot. Instead, the events flow in the random, chaotic order of someone caught up in a perplexing war: periods of seemingly endless boredom interrupted abruptly by terror, mortal danger, agony and slaughter, and then to repeat it all again, over and over. That grunt, the front line soldier, had little knowledge of the historical context, the strategic situation, or the winds of politics and diplomacy. His world was right around him. His job was to do what he was told and survive, if he possibly could. That's the picture this book conveys.
We follow him from his arrival in country, a green, just-out-of-bootcamp "cherry," the rawest of raw recruits, to a battle-hardened bemedaled veteran soldier in less than a year. His progress is conveyed in wonderful detail, with the earthy, profane, frank cynicism characteristic of those who must inure themselves to the incomprehensible and unspeakable or go insane. We follow him on patrols with his platoon. We learn their tactics and procedures, we learn their weapons, we see their courage and that of the helicopter pilots who brought them supplies and provided fire support and evacuation when necessary. We share their endless problems, their clever adaptations, and their forms of relaxation and restoration. Nothing seems omitted. I found myself chuckling in sympathy as the all-too-common cynicism popped up time after time: "Will the real enemy please stand up?"
The book reminds me of other unforgettable memoirs of young men on their own for the first time, of people caught up in events over which they have no control. For that reason alone it is worth buying. But since in this case the action happens in our own time and resonates today, you not only have a fine, entertaining reading experience in your hands: you have something that could change the way you think about current events.
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The Protected Will Never KnowEntering the Army in June of 1969 and "In Country" by November, there began the journey. Vietnam was more than just a war. Vietnam was also the oppressive heat of the jungle, the bugs and mosquitoes, the snakes, the swamps and rice paddies, the monsoon rains and the constant grind of "Humping the Boonies." But surviving Vietnam was more than dodging a bullet, it was about surviving your Tour of Duty with your mind and body still intact.
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