Don's Nam

Book excerpt: Don's Nam is a vivid first-person account of war in Vietnam centered around the daily activities of the Orient Express, it is a story unlike any other account of the war. Written from a diary, and documented with operational reports, eyewitness accounts, journals, and photos, Rast eloquently and passionately takes the reader on a gut-wrenching roller coaster ride of horror, courage, and sacrifice that the headlines and TV news never saw. It is essential, poignant reading for those veterans who were in `Nam and cannot forget, and also for those who were not there, but strive to understand the electrifying intensity of what war is about. Ride the primitive roads on dangerous convoys with the men of the Orient Express, and get a true feeling what it was like to be ambushed or mined in 1969 and 1970. Experience "Rat Patrols," rocket attacks, reconnaissance missions, and the political intrigue that made the war so difficult to fight using conventional methods. The men's stories, taken down in his muddy diary, and kept locked in an old army footlocker for twenty-eight years, jump to life off the pages and leave the reader crying, laughing, or just plainly boiling with rage as this dramatic account of the Vietnam war unfolds in a story that is truly spellbinding. Professor Gilda M. Agacer Monmouth University Editor