Beed has written a memoir of experiences that ten of thousands of young men in the late 60's lived through. Being drafted to fight in Vietnam, going there and doing his job, and returning to the U.S. a changed and damaged man. Experiencing hell, dealing with it, and pushing on. He tells his story through the eyes of an infantryman. And he tells it excellently, honestly, and openly. The training, the waiting, the boredom, the excitement, and the outright terror of the deployment. The incompetence of the "lifers". The return home, the anger, the drinking, the confusion, and ultimately, the conquering of the experiences. While Beed experiences an amazing amount of combat, he never once "blows his own horn", instead he relates the experiences in a plain-spoken, yet vivid manner. The result is that the reader feels they are there with Beed. The same when he returns home, never boasting of his experiences, instead keeping them to himself. Yet the way he opens up in the end of the book, you have to marvel at the man, his strength, and of the other men with similar experiences. Excellent book!