i have just finished reading "dispatches" by michael herr, a free lance reporter who spent three years in vietnam. he was on the line with the people he called the grunts and used a weapon when he was asked to relieve someone.

i have no knowledge of combat situations, but this book came highly recommended as one of the better books that captured what was happening at the "grunt" level.

i will send it to the first person who sends me an address and he can pass it one when he has read it.

the only thing i would appreciate would be an indication from whoever gets the book, whether the book is an accurate portrayal.

RICKAMAVEN

@HOTMAIL.COM

Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War

by Mark Bowden

Is also another great TRUE story and tells more than the movie did.

Gary aka Da Chief

Thanks Rick, but a friend just dropped the book off at my house for me to read! He liked it and was in the "****" so to speak in that hellhole of a place! I was in the Navy, so did not get to visit the beautiful place on the ground! (Sarcastic comment)

I will read it this weekend and give my update next week!

Charlie

The following is a review from a reader at Amazon.com

"I'm a Nam vet who read this book carefully just after publication.

I made a list of about ten downright silly errors appearing in the book. Although I wasn't a Marine (Herr's on the predominantly jarhead scene), I was with the 1st Cav, the only US outfit that seemed to really impress Herr.

In any case, I was looking at an old Phil Caputo interview and Caputo says Herr told him he made up a lot of Dispatches. That's something I can believe.

If you smoke less weed and have lots of actual combat experiences, you have a better quality of high punctilio recollections. Lots of wannabees and political-types don't get that. To actually have the background and boldness to question the veracity of a work like this is incomprehensible. Well, I get to do that. There is a bunch of fake malarkey in this book and honest people should not hold it in high esteem."

Another reviewer wrote: "Herr tells so many compelling stories of the front line experience, which served as fodder for both films, "Apocalypse Now" and "Full Metal Jacket," whose movie scripts, Herr co-authored."

Fact? Fiction? I haven't read it and won't. I lived it and prefer to let it go.