Inspired by the chance discovery of a long-forgotten album containing letters, journals, maps and photographs from the mid-1960s, a former Marine Corps brat chronicles his family's extended voyage across the Pacific Ocean, from the high deserts of California to the humid jungles of Southeast Asia and beyond. Combining the eye-witness accounts of his mother and father as they describe the early stages of the Vietnam War from opposite shores, together with his own vivid memories of childhood conflicts and casualties, author Dirk Harman has created a realistic and revealing portrait of one American military family being swept along by the great tsunami wave of history.
'Fathers and sons. Husbands and wives. Baseball, the Marine Corps, Hawaii and Vietnam. In this poignant and affecting memoir, Dirk Harman has orchestrated a chorus of voices to celebrate the delights and sorrows and small acts of daily heroism that make up an American life. It is ultimately true and haunting."
-Luis Alberto Urrea, author of
THE DEVIL'S HIGHWAY