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The Second Tour

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I have known Terry Rizzuti personally since the early 1970's; at least I thought I knew him. I just finished reading The Second Tour. I started reading it the day it arrived and couldn't put it down until I had finished it that night. Rizzuti's book left me in a state of awe. So many things come to my mind that I hardly know where to begin.
I had read a few books about the Vietnam War, primarily about the Air War such as Thud Ridge and Going Downtown, both by Col. Jack Broughton, retired, F-105 pilot. Another, more recent read is Chickenhawk, a personal account of the helicopter war in Vietnam by Robert Mason. Chickenhawk brought me much closer to the real horrors of the war in Vietnam, but Rizzuti's story jerked me inside, slammed the door, and locked me inside his true account of "hell on earth." Some of the incidents I remember almost verbatim from his re-accounting of them to me some 35 years ago. The chaos, insanity, terror, heartache, loneliness, desperation and overwhelming despair conveyed in this book are palpable, riveting, and real.

While Rizzuti was serving as a human sacrifice to the USA as a member of the Marine Corp, I was a freshman at Northeastern State in Tahlequah, Oklahoma; partying, drinking and screwing-off with not a care. The month after he returned to the states, I went into Air Force Basic training followed by six months of ACDUTRA (electronics training) in Biloxi, Mississippi before returning home to serve with my friendly local FANG (Air National Guard) unit, hardly what you would consider a military experience in comparison.

Once back at home, Terry was employed in the same factory as I. That was where we met and worked together on long graveyard shifts. We were both in college at the time. Looking back, the strangest part may be that there was ever a snowball's chance that Rizzuti and I would become friends, considering the vast gulf of life experience that separated us. Our friendship is a testament to something in Rizzuti's character that made it possible. Now, after reading the account of his experiences and survival, I have come to understand that his tolerance of my naive ignorance came from a certain strength in his character that was refined in the fires of war, and I now want to acknowledge that I consider our friendship as a blessing.

The dilemma of trying to fit in had to have been nothing less than crazy-making. I recall one account, told to me personally by Terry, which did not make it into his book. On a summer night in Oklahoma City, fresh out of the Marine Corps, Terry and a girlfriend were out for a relaxing cruise in her convertible, when some ill-mannered teens in a passing car began hurling derisive comments in their direction. By reflex, Terry grabbed his service .45 automatic from under his seat and fired left-handed at the offending vehicle, missing the front-seat passenger but sending the passenger door handle of that '57 Chevy into low-earth orbit. Today the incident would be correctly described as an incident brought on by post-traumatic stress disorder. That night, it was a rock-solid case of existential rage. The offenders truly had no idea with whom they dealt.

The Second Tour sharply illustrates the stark reality of coming home. It was, and, in many instances still proves to be an overwhelming challenge for many of those returning from the military. Reading Terry's account has helped me better understand my own father and why he never spoke about his experiences in Patton's 3rd Army, 80th Infantry during WWII. This book has opened my eyes to Terry's plight, past and present, and to those of his many fallen comrades like no other book could. I sincerely hope that writing it has been a cathartic experience for him, in even the slightest sense, and that it has given him some relief. I will share this book with as many people as possible. Rizzuti's story, while terrifying, authentic, and life changing is also a story that demands much more illumination; giving voice to the thousands of Terry Rizzutis who continue to suffer in silence.

I thank Terry Rizzuti for writing this book, and I thank him for sharing it with us. Most of all, I thank him for the privilege of his friendship. I would also thank all those who served in that thankless war. Your country and its citizens owe you a debt of honor.

This is clearly a question about which the author of The Second Tour, Terry P. Rizzuti, has thought long and hard. The results of his deliberation are found within the pages of his stunning debut novel, a work in which readers discover an intriguing and compellingly fresh answer.

The Second Tour tells the story of Vietnam in fragmented, non-sequential visions from the perspective of Rootie, a low-level marine. He describes how he and his friends survived, how they lived, and how they died--although not necessarily in that order. By also giving readers brief glimpses of his life after Vietnam, he allows them to see the tremendous impact that serving in Vietnam for just thirteen months has had on his life.

Despite his descriptions of the hardships of war, Rizzuti does not make any moral judgements about the men who fought in Vietnam. Rizzuti tells his story in a frank and subtle manner that prevents him from using the clichés to which so many authors of his genre resort. His matter-of-fact, conversational style often makes readers feel as if they have wandered into a bar where a Vietnam veteran is telling his story by recalling bits and pieces of what he remembers--maybe showing them the odd letter that he wrote home while Bob Dylan songs play on the jukebox.

Rizzuti's style of writing completely captivates and intrigues his audience. As his story jumps decades, often within the span of several paragraphs, readers are frequently uncertain from which location or year the narrator is speaking as they read the initial line of any section. Although this may sound confusing or complicated to some potential readers, at no time do readers become overwhelmed, or does the novel become overly convoluted. Because Rootie's flawlessly flowing narrative links all the events together, it is of no consequence that the events are narrated out of sequence; in fact, such a style of narration only adds to the enjoyment of this refreshing take on a subject that has been often explored.

In short, The Second Tour's honesty, sincerity, and authenticity makes it clear from the beginning that this novel could only have been written by someone who was actually in Vietnam. Although a work of fiction, The Second Tour is based on events few have experienced, providing a fascinating insight into war and the boys who eventually become men when they are sent to fight it.

The Second Tour is not only an electrifying read for fans of the genre, but also a fitting epitaph for those who lost their lives far away from home.

The book is Great. I knew this Mafia Marine was smart, educated, resourceful and brillant the first time I met him at the Vet Center in OKC in 1997.
My unit the 4th Battalion 503rd Infantry 173rd Airborne Brigade (Sep) supported the Marine Corps Oct-Dec 1966 when Rizutti first got to Viet Nam. I Corps to me was miserable. It was the rainy season. I was glad to leave and go back to III Corps.
The Marines had one of the tougest jobs in one of the worst terrains in which to fight a war.
I hope to see more from Rizutti.

The following review is from my husband who has many positive comments about this book.
If you want to 'feel' the effects of war the way grunts do, read this book. Learn how the veterans become trusted friends, how they live, die and still survive today with their memories. This book is a treatise on the development of dissociation, the hallmark of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), as evidenced by "The Thousand Yard Stare" on the book's cover, as well as the following quotes:
"Right now I'm only free in my day dreams." p. 39
"The experience is still as real as the adrenaline it triggers." p. 125
This book is an essential primer for anyone working therapeutically with veterans and PTSD. This remarkable book raises serious questions, while providing critical catharsis and even more importantly, cogent answers that have given me a new understanding of the plight my patients face. ---Darryl Zitzow, PhD. Clinical Psychologist

I was six years old when news footage of the Fall of Saigon filled the world's living rooms. I remember helicopters and soldiers and asking my parents about those men, who they were and what they were doing...

Nothing since has come close to answering those questions until I read "The Second Tour."

Terry P. Rizzuti wrote in his Preface that his first tour of duty as a US Marine in Vietnam lasted 13 months and that the second tour never ended. His book is a fictionalized account of what happened to him in 1966, '67 and how it has shaped his life over the last forty plus years.

The sequence of the short chapters is jumbled and reads as though the scenes were written as they came to the narrator's mind. For example, one chapter is an all-hell-breaks loose combat scene, next it's at tender moment at home with a girlfriend before deployment. This intense style puts the reader in the story and will have your emotions on a roller-coaster laughing one minute and horrified the next.

Most readers are able to describe at least one book as "I couldn't put it down." The only time I stopped reading was to let the previous passage sink in. This book is not for timid or easily offended readers. Shocking at times, it is an honest telling of an experience few of us can imagine.

...those men were Rootie, Raven and Malcolm, and nearly three million more. They were boys, thousands of miles from home in a place worse than hell, dyeing for a government which considered them disposable.

Mr. Rizzuti has a degree in English Literature and has received several awards for his writing. He began "The Second Tour" in 1984 and I consider myself fortunate he shared this story.

This is truth masquerading as fiction. Viet Nam is the scene. The players are members of Second Battalion of the 26th Marine Regiment. "The Second Tour" is that period time between two realities, the then and the now. The secret is to find a way to accept one reality and live with another. Mr. Rizzuti has described his time in Viet Nam very accurately. It's one hell of a story. I hope he has worked over his First Tour and has it behind him. It is a heavy burden to carry alone. Welcome home!

Richard N. Larsen
Reviewer

Opened The Second Tour and stepped knee deep in blood and hamburger meat, thigh high to Hail Mary and O My God... shivering in a rain I'd like to think the V.C. patrolled... too panicked to cry... too scared to keep my eye off Hill 602 waiting on betel juice smells and booby traps with every sense awakened, including my 7th sense--that's the sense beyond the prophecy I, myself, am unable to define--getting a good glimpse of how they lived and died... all by borrowing Rootie's lenses.

The Second Tour took me to a place, on the surface I partially expected, but never thought would pull me between each word and hold me there until everything I thought and believed was replaced by a reality more than 59,000 men lived and died. You see, to describe death is one thing, but to portray emotion with the tip of an extroverted paintbrush is entirely another.

The details in this story... the way it is written... woven between the letters home, the remarkable poetry and cantons, and the unnerving foot patrols... how the residue of hardened thoughts cuddled and shielded pain dressing wounds with unexpected humor... and the innocence of men brought to their knees asking questions that No scripture, but only God Himself could answer... all this and more painted a story so real that each fragment of detail made me want to close the book and let my eyes dry. But like Rootie, I couldn't.

This is a succinct but philosophical read that taught me among a few other things... I must be very careful about which books I freely anoint page-turners. There is so much to talk about here, yet I find myself now rendered speechless. I only spent one day in Vietnam borrowing Rootie's lenses, and two days later I'm still decompressing. It's unfathomable and beyond comprehending how anyone could spend thirteen months in what I come out calling Hell's Hole, and still be able to see straight, let alone think straight. My only explanation here is possibly Matt, Rootie's childhood friend who drowned, whose spirit kept Rootie's head above ground (alas alive).

Like I always say, the most prophetic writers have experienced a deep pain. So far, Rizzuti's is the deepest I know, making his debut novel the most prophetic literature I've yet to read.

Most Vietnam Veterans don't talk to people who weren't there because it's difficult for them to understand, and quite often, it's even more difficult to put your mind back there to relive the experiences. I admire Terry for his willingness to share his story, and for the words he used to immerse you into his experiences.

If you want to take a journey back in time to Vietnam, I highly recommend The Second Tour.

Terry Rizutti pulls no punches in this devastating novel. If you're brave enough to look war dead in the eyes, this book's for you.

Based on the author's real-life experience as a low-level Marine grunt, this story grabs you and plants you deep within the tangled jungles, where enemy "gooks" lurk in every shadow and young men find that even the most horrendous war film doesn't square up with the real thing.

In Chapter 1, titled "Chaos" Rizutti's main character, Rootie, is hit with the loss of one good friend after the other. His ensuing grief turns to a seething anger. It may be that very anger that helps Rootie survive the war.

Rootie writes letters to himself which provide great insights into the effect the war is having on his young mind and heart. On pg. 91, he writes:

Dear me, May 4 67

Tonight I'm drinking to forget something and at the same time to understand something. I can't forget in order to understand, but then again I can't understand no matter how much I remember...

As we follow Rootie through mortar and rocket attacks, burning villages, 140 degree jungles, sniper fire, and so much more, we begin to realize that some questions have no answers. How can one make sense of the unfathomable?

And thus Rootie returns home to the States after his 13 month tour. His second tour begins. How can he explain Vietnam to his loved ones? Why should he even have to try? For there is no way they can ever truly understand, (unless they've experienced combat too).

With pieces of shrapnel still lodged in his body, Rootie's new job is to try and assimilate back into civilian life. A job that is, in many ways, harder than his first tour.

For now he feels like a stranger in his own land. No one understands him, except other Vietnam vets. Living with his memories of Nam, it seems there is no peace. Just living day to day is a tremendous struggle.

Rootie muses (pg.125), "Time, we are socialized to believe, heals all wounds. Vietnam wounds never heal they just hurt less. Time simply encumbers the Vietnam Experience in layers of more and more distanced perspectives. The experience is still as real as the adrenaline it triggers."

Rizzuti's novel is powerful,brutal, insightful, heart-rending, brilliant and courageous. He has given his readers a rare gift of a life laid bare, and a soul that is still healing.

To know that he has faced his demons and achieved a work of art with this book, is awe-inspiring. I pray that other combat vets and their families will find this book and read it. Plus the general public should read it to understand what our soldiers (and their loved ones) go through.Very highly recommended. Awesome!!

The book Second Tour reflects the very smell of jungle, mud, filth, blood, gunsmoke, rotten flesh, sweat, and the stench of dead bodies rotting in the sun and heat. All these words can describe war. I lost my brother in Viet Naam and I was lucky enough to speak with some of his friends that served with him. This book mentions him and it gave me such pleasure to see how much each man cared for his comrades. I have never walked in a war, but I could actually smell the smells of war as I read this book. It's characters were real and the ugliness of what they endured in this book is more truth than fiction. I am ashamed of lots of Americans that spit in the blank faces of those who came home after walking in hell. There is history in the pages of this book that should be remembered as the book is read. The history of a war that was useless and only managed to take the lives of almost 60,000 young men and women that gave their time and respect to their country only to be considered "Just a number and a name on a wall". The author of this book has suffered through the killings of women and children and his own platoon brothers. And he wonders today why he was left and the others taken. The truth is-They are with him because he has made them alive in the book. I am so blessed to have read it and to know that my brother was surrounded by loving, caring young men just like himself, who would lay down their lives for the saving of their Marine brothers.
I challenge anyone to pick this book up and read the first pages. I can tell you, you won't put it down until you have read the entire book. It is written from the heart of the author and it is a healing piece of history with first-hand knowledge of the cost of war not only in dollars, but in lives lost and lives still living. You will be on a tour with the author, through the jungles and rice paddies as he and his comrades fight to stay alive. You will also read of things that will make you angry. Things the American government did that simply was a slap in the soldiers faces.
Thank you Terry for this special gift you have given us! I was so fortunate to have been able to speak with you and to know that this book will hopefully help you to know that you have given a precious gift to readers that want to know the story of war.

Linda from Oregon