Carl Melcher goes to Vietnam
By: Paul Clayton.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 197
Subjects: Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975 -- Fiction.; African American soldiers -- Fiction.; Americans -- Vietnam -- Fiction.; Race relations -- Fiction.; Soldiers -- Fiction.
Genres: Fiction.
Description: "The year is 1968. Like thousands of other American boys, Carl Melcher is drafted and sent to Vietnam. Over there, he sees life at its strangest, most beautiful, and most bestial. Most times, the war raged far away - strange flickerings of light in the night sky, rumbling noises like thunder. Sometimes it grew so quiet that it seemed as if there was no war at all. And when least expected, the war would leap out of nowhere like a beast, with its blood-smeared, stainless-steel teeth and claws." "Although Carl's new company is infected with the same racial tensions plaguing the nation, he manages to make friends on both sides of the color line. Meanwhile the war picks off its victims one by one. Naively optimistic, Carl believes that karma and good intentions will save him and his friends, but then fate intervenes to teach him the real meaning of life and death." "Author Paul Clayton was drafted and sent to Vietnam in 1968, where he served with an infantry line company in the 4th Infantry Division in central highland of Pleiku Province. Carl Melcher Goes to Vietnam is a portrait of the Vietnam War written by a man who was there."--BOOK JACKET.