C Trick: Sort of a Memoir [Hardcover]

Don Cooper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2000

Before Vietnam was Berlin. For a generation that came of age in the 1960s, the Cold War was an unrelenting presence. More than fifty years ago, the Cold War began in Berlin with the Berlin Airlift. In 1961, the Berlin Wall was built, splitting the city into communist East and capitalist West. Even after the shooting stopped in Vietnam, Berlin continued to be the focus of the East-West conflict until the Wall finally came down in 1989. In "C Trick: Sort of a Memoir," author Don Cooper offers insight into the lives of the Vietnam-era soldiers who didn't go to Southeast Asia. Unlike their counterparts in the Vietnam jungles, members of C Trick didn't carry rifles; their weapons were radio receivers and tape recorders. No shots were fired in their war, but it was fought 24 hours a day, seven days a week, year in and year out. The book is an affectionate and humorous recollection about the people of C Trick, how they looked at the world and their place in it. The book examines the relationships of a group of young men who, for just a short time, shared their lives. "C Trick: Sort of a Memoir" is irreverent and bawdy, and captures the spirit of a turbulent time.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"C Trick: Sort of a Memoir" carries on an old American tradition." -- Harold Truman, author

Cooper's realistic descriptions of walking the streets of a freezing Berlin make the reader want to bundle up in something warm. -- Jeff Rutherford, Trylon Communications, New York, 2000

The stories may not be exact recapitulations of fact, but the flavor of the place was so good, I could smell the cheap, sulfurous coal being burned in Berlin. -- Edward J. Richardson, attorney and former member of C Trick

From the Publisher

"C Trick: Sort of a memoir carries on an old American tradition. About World War II novels, Kurt Vonnegut wrote: "And let it here be noted that the best-known members of my literary generation, if they wrote about the war, almost unanimously despised officers and made heroes of sketchily educated, aggressively unaristocratic enlisted men." The same can be said for "C Trick."

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Pale Bone (May 15, 2000)
• ISBN-10: 0967017610
• ISBN-13: 978-0967017617
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,759,572 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining disdain for authority, April 24, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: C Trick: Sort of a Memoir (Hardcover)

Don Cooper has written a Cold War memoir for the common man - and the casual reader. He delivers fly-on-the-wall observations of what the enlisted men, or at least the ones he knew, felt about duties and military authority while stationed in West Berlin as so-called top secret translators with the U.S. Army Security Agency. Indeed, the statement most apt to be quoted in reviews of this book is Cooper's buddy, hairy Ranger, mentioning, "Every day spent in the Army is a day in my life that's wasted." It's a beaut. It says it all. The men of C Trick were a close-knit group. They may be a scruffy, unruly, profane bunch who painted figurative targets on authority figures, but they have their standards. Cooper has created a plethora of characters one can imagine Hollywood screenwriters embracing - Bessie "Ma" Raines, the offensive mess sergeant who scared the men into eating elsewhere. And, there's Dirty Joe, Chief, Fang, Hairy Ranger, Rock Weed, Rapid Roger, Doc, Duck and Grumpy John. "C Trick" is irreverent fun, an entertaining read, that makes us want to know what happened to Cooper's buddies after they all "died," or rather left the Army and headed back to civilian life.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Army Life During the Cold War, June 9, 2000

By 

Jim Leahy (Bedford, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: C Trick: Sort of a Memoir (Hardcover)

Anyone who has ever read a book about life in the military knows the ingredients: young men, alcohol, sex, boredom, and a cynical distaste for the decidedly undemocratic lifestyle of the armed forces. All these are present in abundance in Don Cooper's C Trick: Sort of a Memoir, a collection of anecdotes and incidents involving the men of the Berlin Field Station of the Army Security Agency during the Vietnam era. Some stories are outrageous, some are touching, but anyone who has spent time in uniform will identify with many of the personages and the situations in which they find themselves. Read this book for a vivid glimpse into the experiences of the men who were on the front lines of the "cold" war.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Citizen Soldiers in the Cold War, June 8, 2000

By 

George DeBuchananne (Silver Spring, Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: C Trick: Sort of a Memoir (Hardcover)

Before the all-volunteer Army there was the draft. This ment that most young American men had to decide how they were going to meet their military obligation. As the cold war dragged on while the Viet Nam war heated up how a person met this obligation assumed critical importance. The choices were stark. If you were in college you were safe. If not you could wait to be drafted with the understanding that you could be sent to Viet Nam as a combat soldier, or you could volunteer for an assignment that offered the chance of avoiding infantry combat in a rice paddy. Volunteering, however, also had a price. You would serve for a longer time, often in a foreign country far away from friends and family. C Trick tells the story of some who volunteered. "C Trick, Sort of a Memior" is a delightful tale that described how a group of young citizen soldiers met their military obligation during the last half of the 1960's. Don Cooper describes what it was like to be a soldier in a special Army unit stationed in what may have been the most important cold war hot spot. Using prose from the era he captures all the humor and frustration experienced by young men coping with the rigors of military life. You will experience the frustration of these men when they were expected to perform difficult technical work in an important national security facility while also dealing with military absurdities. This book captures all the details of how these soldiers worked, played and tried to avoid military life while serving in the Army. It is a very refreshing account of how cold war soldiers spent their time while their lives were on hold. There is a lesson in this book on why the West prevailed in the cold war.