June Collins

Goodbye Junie Moon offers readers an inside look at the entertainment business in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War and also exposes a growing corruption ring within the military service industry in Vietnam. Have you ever witnessed people or fellow employees continuing to break the rules or conducting ongoing illegal business? As a hard-working, honest employee yourself, you try to do the right thing and report this to your supervisor - only nothing happens. What if you continued up the show more chain of command and found that the issue continues to be covered up? Whistle Blowers are at risk of retaliation: losing a job or career, harassment, intimidation and possibly death. Who can you trust? Is it worth it? In the case of Junie Moon, she finally finds the right people to support her and goes public - the wrong doers immediately place a bounty on her head and she is unable to flee Vietnam and return to her native Australia. Once the U.S. Government is involved, June is placed into protective custody and whisked to the United States capital.

This is a true story and well publicized during the senate investigations in Washington, D.C. However, I was still in high school and too naive to understand the ramifications. I did get sent to Vietnam in 1970 as an infantryman and never suspected things like this occurred. Now, I have an idea why some of the war trophies we sent to the rear for safe keeping disappeared! It is remarkable to note that after reading about the kick backs and "pay to play" schemes in Vietnam, nothing seems to have changed in the last fifty years; greed and corruption is still rampant!

I did enjoy the 'behind the scenes" story of the entertainment industry during the Vietnam War. The author, June Collins, writes about her dreams and growing up in Australia, alternating those chapters with her experiences in Vietnam. It takes a lot of guts for a person to do what she did during the war. She loved the soldiers and hated to see groups taking advantage of them. She didn't sit on the side lines watching the war go by...June got right into the thick of things, trying to fix what was broken.

Highly recommended...don't let the first chapter dissuade you from continuing to read this story...you'll be glad you did! Great job Ms. Collins!

John Podlask, author
Cherries - A Vietnam War Novel show less

June is a Australian dancer who entertained US troops in South East Asia during the Korean and Vietnamese wars. She became increasingly disturbed at the misuse of funds by certain personnel who were demanding kickbacks and taking every opportunity to line their own pockets at the expense of the troops and US Government, found proof that would stand up in court, then blew the whistle on these men. Brave girl!