Leroy TeCube
Auteur de Year in Nam : a Native American soldier's story
Œuvres de Leroy TeCube
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Date de naissance
- 1947-01-09
- Lieu de naissance
- Dulce, New Mexico, USA
- Prix et distinctions
- American Book award (2000)
Membres
Critiques
Prix et récompenses
Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 1
- Membres
- 13
- Popularité
- #774,335
- Évaluation
- 4.2
- Critiques
- 2
- ISBN
- 3
TeCube gives a brief bit of background to himself and his story by describing his family, his early life, and his culture as a Jicarilla Apache. (Full disclosure: I have lived on the Jicarilla reservation for the past two years and recently met TeCube, sparking my desire to locate and read his book.) He takes the reader through the experience of his Army training and then it is off to Vietnam for the bulk of the story, where he spent 12 months in 1968/69 in the infantry and on the front lines of combat. Front lines is a bit of a misnomer, as TeCube is told early in his tour that the only ground that is securely under the control of the US military was the ground any particular soldier was standing on at the moment.
TeCube portrays the grueling nature of the war in Vietnam and how tenuous the military situation was. Nearly every day is filled with hard, tiring and dangerous work and virtually nothing happens that can be characterized as a victory. The same types of battles are fought day after day after day. Anything that might be considered a measure of success one day quickly fades back to the control of the enemy. The only ground that seems to be held safely for any period of time are the larger operating bases, and even they are frequently under attack.
Being of Native American heritage gave TeCube an unusual vantage point from which to understand the war and his place in it, which is a fascinating part of his story. I greatly enjoyed this book and I commend it to anyone who would like to gain an understanding of the Vietnam war in general, and particularly the extraordinary experiences of those who spent 12 months on the front lines.… (plus d'informations)