Death Angel: A Vietnam Memoir of a Bearer of Death Messages to Families

At 17 the author enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps with dreams of becoming a hero. Two years later, a disillusioned young man returned from a tour of Vietnam, his new assignment, recruiting: finding a "few good men" for the Corps--and soon, too often, delivering death messages to the families of those he had recruited. Here are gut-wrenching memories of a Marine's service in Vietnam, the grief of the parents, and the burden of guilt suffered by the bearer of the news. Sergeant Spiller's emotional turmoil was similar to that of many who first saw the war as an heroic opportunity and then lost heart.