3.0 out of 5 stars
A bit of a hack job, March 30, 2004
In a way, this is (or could have been) an intriguing book regarding the Unknown Soldier who was buried in Arlington. I was there for the ceremony and it happened just as the author described in the book. (The only description missing was the dopey DC motorcycle cop who decided to weave his bike through the honor guard lining the main road. So respectfull!!) There were no planes though and we Viete vets really were barred from entering the Cemetery for the ceremony. The author does a good job of also describing the lab in Hawaii and how the remains are identified.
The premise is rather clever. What was the motive for Reagan to bury an Unkonwn Soldier? Was it to lay to rest the sticky point over MIAs and abandoned soldiers? To shut up the POW family networks? Was the man identified actually murdered and the burial a means to cover that up? Was the body actually identifiable? This turned out to be true, which started the conspiracy theories.
Grounds for a great who-dunit, right? But, for the most part, the book is a bit of a hack job. On page 127, Walt Meredith is described as a middle aged man and former "daredevil mercenary in Vietnam." Oh puh-leese, never just a regular Joe. He also is a babe magnet for women half his age--something I suffer from too along with all the other middle-aged Vietnam veterans. And why are they always blonds with green eyes? I can never go out without my wife getting in countless fistfights with these women. We never seem to attract cute Asian women, though, in books like this. Don't fat women find us attractive?
Some of the descriptions are really annoying. There are also plenty of crazy and murderous Viet vets for those who like that genre. How about this on page 241, "Daddy, did you also cut Krauts' ear and wear them on a string, as a necklace, for everybody to see?" (In actuality, the SS--if you can believe that--filed written complaints about the mutilation and murder of German wounded by Americans after Market Garden.) Another Viet vet, on page 259, is described as "[a]weird guy...Boy, he was weird. You had to see him. Long hair, long beard, used to run barefoot in the woods ... It was Vietnam his wife said." Yeeeaaah, okaaaay. Seen it a million times--in Hollywood.
Like I say, this moves along like all those other who-dunits you see in airport shops. Well written but with all the cliches.
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