Customer Reviews

Quang Tri Cadence: Memoir of a Rifle Platoon Leader in the Mountains of Vietnam

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Oplinger's memoir puts the reader: on-point in the mountainous jungles with snipers in the trees, and in the doorway of helicopter gunships with the knowledge that incompetent officers were , unseen, calling the shots, and it puts the reader in military hospitals surrounded by tortured bodies, and it also puts us on rioting college campuses back home. Best of all this, thoroughly engrossing book puts a memory of the Vietnam experience on the "pass-it-around" circuit. I loaned my copy to my brother-in-law- (a Vietnam era vet himslf). I can't get it back, he's loaned it to another vet. But don't let me give you the idea that only vets want/need to read Oplinger's memoir. During the late '60's I spent my energies in anti-war demonstrations trying to get guys like the author and his platoon safely home to enjoy the decade the way we were enjoying it. This book is also a connector for the vets and those who weren't in 'Nam but who were home working so that no American "boys" had to be there. A bit of history worth re-visiting. Recently I visited D.C. with my teen-aged daughter. We found ourselves walking down the hill towards the Vietnam Memorial. At some point as we neared the Wall, I froze-up with emotions and pain as I discovered I could not approach any closer to the Wall and the memories of that war. Choked-up,I had to wait to attempt an explanation to my daughter. At home, handing her a copy of Quang Tri Cadence by Jon Oplinger, I said something like, "Read this, it'll help you understand the times, the War, and your Dad."