Ghosts and Shadows: A Marine in Vietnam, 1968-1969

Under the "buddy plan," 19-year-old Phil Ball joined the United States Marines - who promptly separated him from the friend he enlisted with. A few months later, he would have new buddies, the platoon mates who hunkered beside him under enemy attack. He learned that in the Vietnam War, friends in foxholes were quickly made and quickly lost.The death of his closest friend during a bloody battle in May 1968 was perhaps the beginning of Phil Ball's hardest fight of all. His tour in Vietnam lasted 13 months, but his battle with post-traumatic stress disorder would rage for 20 years. The writing of this memoir - a factual account of his time in Vietnam from April 1968 through May 1969, and the painful years that followed - was the beginning of his recovery.