Review: A German Shepherd Named Whispers and Much More
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 7, 2012
After reading Bert Carson's book Fourth and Forever last year I knew I would read his new book Another Place Another Time.  This author has a narrative voice that is authoritative, kind and generous to a fault, and wise in the way only a soldier's voice from America's greatest military failure can be.  I'm speaking of Vietnam, of course, though the book resonates all the more now in 2012 as we try to extricate ourselves from the unwinnable quagmire called Afghanistan.The military strategy may be flawed, but heroes are born in combat.  So Vietnam produced countless heroes whether they came home dead or alive, with or without medals.  And the existential terror that war awakened in the young men who went there forged a bond between them that carries on through the decades just as strong as the year or two that they spent together.  This special bond that war heroes feel toward each other lies at the core of Bert Carson's books.In Another Place Another Time a boy is inducted into the army in 1967 and trained to become a Scout Dog Handler, responsible in Vietnam for helping prevent ambushes and traps.  Jake and his German Shepherd Whispers do two tours there and become inseparable, and it seems that the reason they are able to sniff out so many ambushes is that they can talk to each other.  Between man and dog there is real communication.The title gives away the real stretch that the book makes, suggesting that the experience of war transcends time.  That experience is so powerful and leaves such deep scars, men will travel back and forth in time to relive it, to renew those deep bonds but also to purge the horror from their psyche, to search for the healing path that eludes them.This is a different kind of war story, uplifting and wise, eloquent and yet with a tendency toward the paranormal.  The writing is beautiful, as are the bonds between men, and between man and dog.  Highly recommended.