What Are They Going To Do, Send Me To Vietnam? [Paperback]

Jack C. Stoddard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2000

Hand Grenades to Hemorrhoids

New Book Depicts the Real Vietnam War

There are no Hollywood-style heroes in Jack Stoddard's book, What Are They Going To Do, Send Me To VIETNAM? What readers will find, however, is a collection of vividly true accounts of a bunch of scared young men thrown into one of this country's most ill-conceived military campaigns on the other side of the globe.

Stoddard arrived in Vietnam in 1968 a green, 22-year-old buck sergeant and after almost three full tours of combat duty, he left a battle-hardened veteran. Now, more than a quarter-century later, his sons want to know what it was like. Their natural curiosity caused him to travel once again into the unbearably hot and humid jungles of southeast Asia of the late 1960s and dredge up long-buried memories. He decided to organize these stories into a book so that others could also learn the truth.

As Retired Brigadier General Tom White says in his foreword, "This book is not about colonels, generals, or politicians. It is about what it was really like to soldier in Vietnam. ...we see the entire Vietnam experiencedays of boredom interspersed with moments of sheer terror, miserable weather, lonesomenesseverything from hand grenades to hemorrhoids." Stoddard describes what it was like to drive his 50-ton tank, nicknamed the Double Deuce, into war-torn Khe Sanh. He shares the lighter side that even wars can have when tells of the new second lieutenant commanding his tank right into the mud where it slowly disappeared from sight.

Through it all comes an understanding of the love and respect that bound these men together, that created the type of selflessness demonstrated by the young medic who stood up in a blaze of Viet Cong bullets so he could point out the machine gun nest knowing this act of saving his fellow soldiers would be the last thing he would ever do.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Take it from me as someone who has been there, Jack's Vietnam is a true-to-life account of the way it really was, not like Hollywood would have us believe. Whether you are a student of the war or just someone with a casual interest, you will surely find plenty to interest you. To say that I recommend this book is most assuredly an understatement. This is not a book to recommend. This is a book to have on your bookshelf. A book to read again and again." -- Bob Hersey,

"The intro by Brig. General Tom White, one of my heroes, is absolutely superb. I like your style and the stories are classica gift to all Vietnam veterans and our nation, in my opinion." -- Col. John Rosenberger, Commander 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, Ft Irwin, CA

"Your book arrived and I am trying to read it. You have heard of a book that you can't put down? Well... I have to put it down after every two or three stories. It is not going to do my sleeping habits any good but I sure am taken with your writing. Glad you wrote it, even more glad I bought it. Thanks for telling the stories the way they deserve to be told." -- Retired Col. Jack Swansen, 1/61st Infantry Bn. 5th Infantry Division, Vietnam

About the Author

Jack Stoddard's father was a career man in the Army and as a result, Jack traveled from base to base, never staying at one place for very long and visiting places like Guam and Italy all before the age of sixteen. Inspired by the military life, he left home at the age of seventeen and joined the Army where he spent the next twenty-two years.

In addition to Vietnam, he was stationed in Korea, Germany, and several different posts in the U.S. He retired at Ft. Hood, Texas, in 1985 with the rank of a Chief Warrant Officer Two, Armorment Tech.

He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, with his second wife, Sue, and their two boys, Christopher and William (Billy), both of whom have a degenerative and terminal disorder called Leigh's Disease which prevents their bodies from producing sufficient energy to run all their organs, including their brains. Jack says his life has come full circle and that he is now engaged in a new kind of war fighting for the rights of the handicapped just as hard as he fought in Vietnam. He's quick to point out, however, that this war is a lot harder because these kids can't fight for themselves

Product Details

• Paperback: 215 pages
• Publisher: Sunrise Mountian Pub; 3rd edition (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967805503
• ISBN-13: 978-0967805504
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,154,937 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Newswatch UK review, July 12, 2000

By 

Joanna Knudson (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Are They Going To Do, Send Me To Vietnam? (Paperback)

Forget the high-budget, action-packed, grenade-fuelled war movies.

If you want to really know what the Vietnam War was like, you need to get hold of a copy of Jack Stoddard's 'What are they going to do? Send me to Vietnam?'

Stoddard arrived in 'the 'Nam' in 1968, a 22-year-old career soldier in his first war role.

Thirty years later he was impelled to write this book after his young son asked him what the war was really like.

Stoddard took on a difficult task - how can you relate the fear, the courage, the comradeship, the desperate times, the deaths in mere words?

But Stoddard completes his task admirably.

What's so refreshing about 'What are they going to do? Send me to Vietnam?' is the fact it makes no judgements. There's no political wrangling, no debate over the rights and wrongs of the war.

This is a soldier's tale - straight from the horse's mouth.

Written in a pleasant and easy style, this book takes us through Stoddard's life in the 'Nam.

From his first day as a tanker when he was attacked by vicious jungle vines, to his life as a special combat soldier - entering dangerous areas to 'sniff out' the enemy.

He talks about his own personal battles - from the humorous incident when he suffers from haemorrhoids to the heart-wrenching descriptions of the death of close friends.

He chats about his fellow soldiers - and the camaraderie and genuine love that built up around them in the most inhospitable of conditions.

And he talks of the effect the war had on his life. How thirty years later he was drawn to the grave of dead friend, how he talked to the families of soldiers who were killed in combat, and how he misses the friendships and purpose a war situation brings.

It seems wrong to call this an entertaining book - but it is.

At times it's hard to believe what you are reading is fact, not fiction.

I also found it a hard book to put down. It's more a collection of stories than a formulated record but even so, Stoddard possesses a rare gift, in that he draws the reader in and won't let them go.

It's obvious he wrote this book as a kind of 'letting go' of his own memories - a burial of the past - but this is not a criticism, it merely makes the book even more readable.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No whining, no anti-war BS, no blame...just life as it was!, May 28, 2000

By 

"bandit32" - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Are They Going To Do, Send Me To Vietnam? (Paperback)

All Vietnam Veterans experienced the same war, but from a different perspective. Here is what I am talking about. As a helicopter pilot, I remember watching the Grunts and Tankers on the ground sitting on their tracks and thinking, "God!, am I glad I don't have to live like those poor bastards with all the dust, mud, bugs, heat and mines on the ground looking for the VC and Charlie." Little did I suspect that the Grunts and Tankers on the ground were saying, "God, I'm glad I am not one of those poor bastards who flys one of those frail little choppers, and have my as shot off by the VC as I fly around exposed in the sky!" You see what I mean? Perspective is very important.

So, do yourself a favor, whether you are a veteran or not. Pick up Jack Stoddard's book and read it. You will find easy reading with compact and colorfully graphic short stories which will amaze you. And, the stories will remind you that war, especially the unpopular Vietnam War, was fought by real men, just like you.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I wasn't there . . . but I loved someone who was., May 3, 2000

By 

Carol Fitch Baulos (Guam USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Are They Going To Do, Send Me To Vietnam? (Paperback)

This book is a must read for anyone who loved someone who served in Vietnam. As a young bride my husband, an Army NCO, was sent to a mortars unit in the Northern Highlands soon after our marriage. For me the war meant sending tins of cookies homemade filled with love and plastic baggies filled with baby pictures of our daughter as she grew up without her daddy. Thank goodness she was too young to remember watching the 6 o'clock news each night anxiously waiting for the map of Vietnam with the little explosion decals and hoping the bombing was not near the area of his latest letter. I knew my husband returned from this war a different man, but I never truly understood what it was like for him until I read this book. Jack tells his story so vividly I could actually picture my husband there in each chapter. Reading along, I was suprised at how powerful and moving an experience this was for me. This is NOT a depressing book, but if you loved someone who was there, I definitely recommend you keep some tissues handy.