Customer Reviews

Lost Survivor: The Novel of a Black Soldier's Journey to Vietnam and Back

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John Douglas, known to his comrades as JD, is a young soldier from Springfield, Illinois who is sent to Vietnam during the war. He is a medic and goes out on missions with a Marine group known as the Valley Dogs. The North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong fear the Valley Dogs and have put a large bounty on their heads so whenever the Valley Dogs are out in the jungle, they must be extra careful. JD not only patches up the soldiers when they are injured, but he must also protect himself and others in the group. JD admits to himself his fears and his deep desire to get home alive. He daydreams about the wife and son he left in the States. In battle after battle, JD has close calls as they fight the Cong and the North Vietnamese Army. The North Vietnamese Army takes no prisoners. After one particularly ugly skirmish, he is listed as Missing in Action (MIA). His family does not expect to see him again but JD is a survivor from his heart.

Thomas R. Jones, a Vietnam veteran, has penned an awesome tale of war; the ugliness, the brutality, the killing, the pain and the fear. In LOST SURVIVOR he shows that fear presents itself in many ways. Some of the soldiers kill and torture wantonly while others cower in terror. Jones points out the mad racism that keeps the soldiers able to kill and maim others who do not look like them. He even deals with the racism that exists among the American soldiers. LOST SURVIVOR is a smoothly written book with plenty of suspense and a surprise ending. This is a painfully real book that should be handed to every young man or woman who willingly joins the military. I am going to recommend it to the many Vietnam Veterans I know.

Reviewed by Alice Holman
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Tom Jones has told a very realistic story of war. It may be told through the eyes and words of a Black American, but a warrior of any race or nationality will recognize it. He shows us the horrors. We're both repelled and captivated by it because of the ease with which "JD" appears to cope. And because he shows that we can survive the horrors without being possessed by them.

The reality of JD's fight/flight existence as a warrior, cannot be excised when facing the transition back to the "normal" world. Instead JD incorporates the "warrior" reality as but another lesson, albeit a hard one, of life's educational system. That he is able to achieve this without hatred, psychosis or suicide is what makes JD heroic. But I think the most important thing to JD's survival is his understanding that "life means doing, death means being done."

I came away from this book caring about the characters Jones has created. Not old enough to have experienced Vietnam, I now have a better understanding of that period in our history and see how it is playing out today. I recommend this book to anyone who wonders what a veteran goes (is going or has gone) through when they come back to our reality after having survived the war. This is a fantastic book. Once I picked it up and began to read, I didn't want to put it down.