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Nam-A-Rama Paperback – March 6, 2007

by Phillip Jennings (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 41 ratings
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Everybody knows War is Hell. Only the Few and the Proud know what fun Hell can be.

Here it is, folks: "How the cow ate the cabbage" in the CLASSIFIED words of the President hisself [sic]. TOP SECRET stuff. EYES ONLY. If you want to know the real story (and you know you do)-

Nam-A-Rama is Catch 22 meets "Apocalypse Now." It's the wildest, wackiest, saddest and truest war story ever told, because it's all made-up, which means it's all real-from the oatmeal dropped on the VC (the Marines won't eat it) to the naked movie star parachuting into Hanoi; from the jarhead who calls in air strikes from a Bangkok brothel to the "Sky-Kyke" who fills out the Marine Corps' diversity quota; from the businessmen demanding a long inventory-reducing war to the Pentagon brass hoping for a glorious medal-worthy one; from the locals who'll do anything for a Yankee dollar to the grunts nobody ever asked and never will.

It starts and ends, like all the best adventures, in the air. Almost-Captain Gearheardt and his buddy, Almost-Captain Armstrong, are ferrying bodies (live in, dead out) for the CIA's Air America, but they have never forgotten their TOP SECRET orders, given when Gearheardt was delivering pizzas to the Oval Office for the CIA: Chopper into Hanoi and buy Uncle Ho a beer. Then either shoot his ass or shake his hand (the instructions get vague at this point).

And so they do, Semper Fi, pausing only to get an aircraft carrier black-flagged for bubonic plague, have an affair with Mickey Mouse, cleverly decode the message sewn into a lusty spy's black panties, commandeer a Russian truck complete with a midget Chinese 'Uncle Sam,' avenge themselves on a Cuban torturer, and dutifully experience all the Honor and Glory of the next-to-the-next-to-last war that never (God forbid) made the Nightly News.

And they do it all for laughs. Because if they were to stop laughing, where would the heartache end?

Phillip Jennings' unpredictable novel of Vietnam is an American classic in the making, a not-so-longing look at the absurdity of a war in which the damned and the innocent share the same hootch, the same Commander-in-Chief, and sometimes even the same body-bag. You won't stop laughing, or thinking.
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Previous page
  1. Part of series
    The Gearheardt Series
  2. Print length
    352 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Forge Books
  5. Publication date
    March 6, 2007
  6. Dimensions
    4.25 x 0.75 x 6.75 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0765349868
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0765349866
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Phillip Jennings left the Marines as a captain and subsequently flew for Air America in Laos. He won the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society short fiction award in 1998. He has a degree in business administration and is the CEO of Mayfair Capital Partners. He was recently proud and honored to swear his youngest son into the USMC. He lives in Kirkland, WA.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Forge Books (March 6, 2007)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0765349868
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0765349866
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.25 x 0.75 x 6.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 41 ratings

About the author

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Phillip Jennings

Phillip Jennings

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Childhood, then finance degree from top cow college, masters (almost) in pre-Colombian Art at Universidad de Mexico,Former Marine pilot, CIA pilot, business stuff of awesome irrelevance. Fell out of office chair afflicted with near terminal boredom. Started writing. Still writing. Found satire best to apply basic wiseguy material and not get sued.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
41 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Joseph R Chitty
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2023
Verified Purchase
Great series
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Patrick O. Hardy
5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read If You Were In Nam As A Grunt Or On A Chopper!
Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2014
Verified Purchase
LOL! As crazy & outlandish as this may seem to many NOT on the front lines in Nam, its not that far-fetched! Gearheart and Armstrong are the reason this Country has stayed great all these years! Jennings Guide To Nam told it like it was and put the medicine to the pain on the lying media, led by Kronkite and Company, that said we lost a War that we won. This novel gives a picture just how CRAZY Nam was and how much pain, suffering, and fun it was if you just didn't give a DAMN ala Gearheart! Armstrong, an All American Boy, who just never could understand that War ain't Hell, Its Business! My favorite Nam story/movie since Apocalypse Now!
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Manford Brown
3.0 out of 5 stars Its OK.
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2014
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I started reading this book several months ago and set it aside. I came back to it and finally finished reading it. I guess my problem with the book is finding humor about Vietnam. I did appreciate the part about the Hollywood bimbo parachuting into Hanoi. I could not think of a better description of that traitor. Although the book was not my favorite I do want to thank the author for his service to our country.
2 people found this helpful
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Tommy Paine
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantabulous Fantasma of Fatally Flawed FarEast Fight
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2018
Verified Purchase
Memorable characters, dodging a war that should never have been. One has to wonder if these type of roles existed in that time and space, or if the book is pure irony. It's very readable, extremely amusing, and it hurts to read it, but in a good way.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars It is better than Catch 22 and more contemporary!
Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2018
Verified Purchase
It’s entrrtaining . I can’t imagene flying into
a combat zone with hundreds of the ennmy
Using your chopper as a target zone- that
takes guts. It also takes a strong belief that
the pilot can get back out still alive!
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Java Man Carlini
4.0 out of 5 stars There it is, man...
Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2015
Verified Purchase
The title seems to be, in addition to the circus-like association of the A-Rama element, a play on the name of one of the conflict's most renowned architects, Robert McNamara; all in keeping with the theme of the narrative.   

Jennings has done a masterful job depicting the absurdity of life in the Lean Green Fighting Machine of the era of the American War in Indochina.  He has fully retained the black humor and flippancy that GIs adopted as a coping mechanism for the darkness and stupidity in which they found themselves.  Bless him for writing his way out of that long bleak tunnel.  I hope it doesn't say too much about my state of mind that I understood every word he was saying.  If so, #$%& it man, don' mean nothin'.

Laced throughout with allusions to various elements of the culture--both military and civilian--of the period, he teases us with items like the John LeCarre' character of Enderby as the Hong Kong station chief using diplomatic cover at the British Embassy.  A nice touch to add credibility to the notional likelihood of his war story, even though LeCarre's Enderby story in Asia had purportedly occurred some 8 years after the period in Jennings' story.  But time is fluid, and it is a nice touch.

All I am saying is give this piece a chance, for it's entertainment value.
One person found this helpful
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Charles A. Krohn
5.0 out of 5 stars Strange and wonderful
Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2014
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No sane person could have written this book. I do not recommend reading for anyone under the age of 10.
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Ben Thurley
2.0 out of 5 stars Not the new Catch-22
Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2013
Verified Purchase
War, they say, is hell. But so too is writing a blackly comic novel about war in the shadow of Catch-22. Nam-A-Rama isn't subtle, it isn't sly, and it isn't as funny as it thinks it is. Can't hold a candle (or a phosphorus grenade) to Heller.
2 people found this helpful
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