Nineteen in Nam

By Tom Bixby

Like MASH and Catch 22, Nineteen in Nam rides the razor's edge between the horrors and hilarity of a war run by a blundering military bureaucracy. Bored military police guard Elvis Ross starts a rumor to prove his commanders are out of touch and ends up "volunteered" for helicopter gunner duty behind a machine gun he was never trained on.
Busted again, Ross gets sent to a field unit where he reports to an alcoholic MP sergeant who runs a saloon and poker game out of a bunker for his personal profit. Ross patrols roads plagued by snipers and mining and lives in a Vietnamese police outpost that is attacked nightly. In addition to the hazards of war, he deals with accidental shootings, hit and runs, black marketeers and with mud, dust, monsoon rains, and snakes that kill in seven seconds.
Defending a Vietnamese village from enemy attack, Ross is shaken deeply by his first personal kills and begins a fierce struggle to recover his identity and his connection to normal society. On the journey he suffers hospitalizations for recurring malaria symptoms, a court martial by a vindictive and stuttering rear area commander, stateside duty as a pall bearer and a full measure PTSD.
Based on true incidents, but unlike the usual heroic war stories, Nineteen in Nam is as unpredictable and disturbingly human as war itself.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0BW2X9BWN
• ISBN13: 9798377303312
• Release Date: February 2023
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 436 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"