Army Blue

In case the reader isn't aware, Truscott is an exceptionally well-informed source. Not only is he a graduate of West Point, his family has been eating Army rations for a long time and has produced some very distinguished soldiers. The family in this book bears quite a resemblance to them.At first blush it seems that Truscott is taking out his bitterness on the Army, but as you read along you see that he's actually quite fair. Good soldiers, bad soldiers; good NCOs, bad NCOs; good officers, bad officers. What he really shows us is that while there are some unmitigated heels at all levels of the service, there are also some of the finest and most dedicated people you could hope to meet. I found most of the characters credible and interesting.While I wouldn't say it's superb in any area, it's a creditworthy portrayal. Truscott shows hints of the ability to create 'moments' that you remember many months after finishing the book, but there are not quite enough of them for five stars.

Perhaps you've read all those I-was-there-and-this- is-how-it-really-was battle accounts of the Vietnam war, detailing the petrifying fear of nighttime patrols in the jungle, with VC lurking in the dark with malicious intentions on your life and limb. In Lucian K Truscott IV's rivetting book Army Blue, the young Leiutenant Matt Blue faces a very different, even more frightening enemy - the US Army. Having grown up in an Army family, his father and grandfather a General and a Colonel, respectively, Matthew Nelson BLue IV had an innocent faith in his family's Army. That faith is destroyed, however, when he is arrested and court-martialed for desertion in the face of the enemy. He is allowed one desperate call to his father, the Colonel, before being cut off from the world and hidden away in solitary confinement in a god-forsaken jail in Vietnam. Through the eyes of young Matt, his father, and his grandfather, the mystery slowly unfolds, along with it the story of the Colonel's 10 year estrangement from his abrasive father, and the beginnings of similar strife between the Leiutenant and the Colonel. Leaving the reader hanging on the edge of his/her seat until the very end, this suspenseful, entertaining, and personal novel will leave you changed, with a fresh perspective on the Vietnam war through the eyes of three generations of men wearing Army Blue. Lindsay D. Nelson