First Blood: A Marine Grunt in Vietnam (1) (Monk's War)

Monk's War is true stories of what it was like to live the life of a Marine ground pounder in Vietnam. It reads like a good adventure novel, as your own "theater of the mind" puts you in the hero's place. You'll meet young men with nicknames like Gunny, Mushy, Hog, Broccoli, Eyes and Piro. The author, Frank M. Beyea was called Monk, and occasionally, Dumb Ass. The lives of Monk and the others, besides being in danger from the Viet Cong, were threatened by Captain Clean. An officer on their own side, Captain Clean looked like Mr. Clean but was actually Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon. Water was another enemy that 18 year old Monk faced repeatedly, as shown in these two excerpts from the book: 1) "For the last ten minutes we had been in a battle for our lives with a half dozen VC who had jumped us as we crossed a wide open rice paddy on our way to patrol a nearby village. "At that moment, I was lying in putrid, rice paddy water that had been fertilized by water buffalo and was loaded with leeches and God only knows what else." 2) "The Sergeant yelled out, 'Monk, jump in the water on the opposite side of the canoe and grab hold. I'll cover you and try and get the sniper.' "I couldn't believe this was happening to me again. I was about to hit the water with all my gear and hope that one of three things didn't happen: that the canoe would tip over and drown us all, that I would get shot while making the attempt to jump over the side, or my hand would miss the side of the canoe when I jumped and I would sink like a rock to the bottom, once again proving that a Marine in a flack jacket does not float." Join Monk and his young Marine, ground pounding buddies as they hold it together through all that was thrown at them, including hand grenades and bags of poisonous snakes. Then there was the pungi-pits!