Customer Reviews

Stand To ...: A Journey to Manhood

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Vietnam veteran and author E. Franklin Evans has captured something very special in his personal war memoir, "Stand To...A Journey to Manhood". We get a good glimpse back into the life and times of a "young man" caught in the vortex of war. The reader is treated to a well written accounting of his experiences surviving both the traumas of battles and people. It is historic, personal and entertaining.

This is one of this decade's "Top 10 Best Memoirs" on the Vietnam War experience. The story is emotionally presented through the eyes of a young Army officer - but it is clearly written with the introspection of a much older author. He looks back at that time and place in his life in an attempt to understand and come to grips with these events. It is truly a journey and one that most readers will find well worth taking with this author.

The book gives us some insights on what it was like in one of the remote Special Forces Camps. The readers will find themselves fully engaged and on the edge of their seats as they read about the heavy fighting that took place in and around these camps. The book is about life and death and about those brave young men who lived and died a long time ago. But it is obvious that these events for men like Evans, will never seem that long ago. In their hearts and minds it is just like it happened yesterday.

This book gets my fullest personal endorsement and recommendation.

Frank Evans has done a fabulous job of bringing to real life the experience of growing to manhood in combat. As a combat veteran of the Viet Nam war, I was reminded of my own experiences. If you know a Viet Nam veteran, you should read this book!

although on a subject not popular, this book is timely and appropriate for those who are interested in the Vietnam war from a personal perspective

In the early sixties, war was something to be admired. Awesome heroes and no one important ever died. E. Franklin Evans has first person experience in the falsehood of that statement. "Stand To...: A Journey to Manhood" is his recollection of his harsh and sudden arrival to adulthood when he went overseas during arguably America's most controversial war in Vietnam. He returns a very different person and short a best friend. Painting a story of the harsh reality, "Stand To..." is what one needs to bring the cruelty of warfare into perspective.

Frank Evans has provided a thoughtful rendition of his service in Vietnam. A project that began as a personal memoir has transformed into a soldier's story about why he joined the Army and his experience in war as he grew from being a young person of the 60s to a mature soldier and leader in the Army. Evans' story will hit home to many people who lived through those turbulent years and made choices to serve or not serve in military service. Stand To provides a personal account of an infantry leader that is different from many stories that have come out of the nation's military experience in Vietnam. Many books dealing with that time period focus on the strategic decisions and opportunities or the accusations of atrocities and other misconduct. Evans' account focuses on one young man's experience where he faced war and death but also the humor that sometimes only soldiers can glean from such situations. This story will most likely resemble the experiences of countless young soldiers who served in Vietnam rather than the overblown accounts of some who have sought headlines. Anyone interested in gaining an understanding of the war from a young infantry leader's perspective will benefit from reading this book.