Mad Minutes and Vietnam Months: A Soldier's Memoir: A Soldier's Memoir

After having read nearly fifteen first person accounts of the particular hell that was Vietnam, Mr. Clodfelter's personal account resonates with a rare combination of humanity and machismo. The author's laconic recountings of the horrors he witnessed, described in a style reminiscent of Poe, mix humor with the raw trauma of soldiers exploded, maimed, while infusing his dire tale with the conscience of one who observes men reduced to the desperate behaviors resulting from post-traumatic stress disorder. Mr. Clodfelter's experience of war is a riveting account of the fears generated by nighttime combat, fusillades of AK-47 automatic weapons fire, the yammering cacaphony of LMGs blistering the air, unseen booby traps made from artillery rounds, and the extreme physical privations of immersion foot, jungle rot, dysentery, dehydration, scorpions, fire ants, spiders, eight inch biting centipedes, rats the size of cats, poisonous snakes, mosquito bites, malaria, leeches, elephant grass, to name but a few of the natural dangers the infantryman faced for thirteen months. Mr. Clodfelter's tale of betrayed ideals proceeds inexorably from the patriotic spirit of his youth to his ultimate disillusionment with the debacle which claimed 58,000 men. His writing style is exciting, weaving powerful metaphors into his tale that resemble an Edgar Allen Poe literary flourish. Mad Minutes And Vietnam Months is one of the most powerful books about the Vietnam War that I have read, and I recommend it with the highest accolade.