An honest and moving account of one American's Vietnamese War, this memoir is both tragic and very, very funny. I often pull this book off the shelf just to read his description of Captain Kale, who "owned records of people playing accordians and could tell the difference between them". ( )

The author's account of his tour of duty in Vietnam. Wolff served from 1967 to 1968 as a US Army lieutenant advising an Army of the Republic of Vietnam artillery battalion in the Mekong Delta. Introspective and, at times, amusing. However, relative to the many other firsthand accounts of the Vietnam War, Wolff's story is not that interesting. ( )

Wolff was one of those green young lieutenants who need sergeants to keep their heads straight. He is sorry. He apologizes. Wolff reminds us that, tested by combat, we might prove to be clumsy, dim-witted wimps instead of hero. He was brave to say so. Lovely writing, too. ( )

The funny and eminently readable memoir shows the best and worst of the US army during the Vietnam War. On the one hand, it lifted a failed youth out of misery and turned him into an officer and Oxford graduate. On the other hand, the US army destroyed countless lives (both foreign and American) and a country.
Written in 1994, the descriptions of an inept, culturally ignorant and disconnected military makes for an eery reading given the current Iraq mess. ( )