Customer Reviews

Born in the '40s, Raised in the '50s, Died in the '60s

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I read this book NON-stop for 4 straight hours. George Brondsema served 2 tours with the Marines in Golf 2/3. This book will appeal to anyone who served in Vietnam ... or was in the Marine Corps .. or was a fellow Baby Boomer. Brondsema bares his heart and soul when he shares his experiences and angst as you trace his life from growing up .. to the harsh realities of war .. and his adjustment afterward. You will be caught up into his World .. and how he had to continually cope with the nightmares that followed his military experience.

I am 23 years old, I enlisted in the Army Reserves at 17 right after September 11. I was part of the delayed entry program. I could have waited and gone active duty but I wanted the experience and the chance to have fought for my country in Afghanistan. Needless to say, at 18, I was deployed to Iraq instead and didn't see home until I was 20. I actually work with George's niece and we were talking very casually about my deployment and a book I am trying to write and she was the one who told me about his book. I read it in two sittings and despite the differences in our branches, war, rank and experience, I found myself disturbingly able to relate to most everything that was said.

Your book was therapeutic for me and helped me to understand that as alone as I may feel from time to time, the reality is that I am not at all. Thank you for your courage to write your book. I know the strength it takes to relive certain feelings and images and that is something I am struggling with now and afraid I will struggle with for quite some time. Please know that you as an older Veteran to younger Veterans across the nation, we look up to you, and have wanted to be like you, and your book has helped me personally as a guide to be strong like you. Great book. I will recommend it to the people who were deployed with me. And I hope you don't mind if I use yours as a guide/model for mine. God Bless. Semper Fi.

I couldn't be prouder of my brother, a proud Marine. His story is one that can be shared with any war veteran. I always looked up to my older brother and wanted to be like him. My friend and I wanted to join the Marines, and be like our big brothers. Both our brothers got wounded and our mothers visited Veteran Hospitals. The story is how Viet Nam changed our thoughts on war. As my brother told me," it's not what you think". I couldn't put the book down until finishing it, realizing, it could have been me. I now know, what a Veteran truly means, and what the flag means.

I found this book to convey both honesty and deep feeling about a time in our nations history that still holds conflict for those that lived through them. Mr Brondsema served two tours of duty as a Marine in Vietnam. He shares with us the innocence of growing up in the fifties and the shattering of the innocence in Vietnam and after, when he returned home. He describes clearly the damage done to returning veterans by cultural rejection which deepened his and other veterans feelings of alienation. It offers a rare degree of insight into the experience of a combat veteran both in the war zone and then the lifetime of reliving the events and feelings. A bonus feature of the book is the excellent poetry which offers windows into the authors experiences and feelings about Vietnam. I would highly recommend this book to anyone wishing a deeper understanding of the Vietnam era.