FOR THE LOVE OF A GIRL
By William Hiles
Trafford Publishing
230 pgs
This review is personal. During the Vietnam War, 2.7 million American men and women served in that faraway country. 58,000 of them died there. William Hiles was there and so was I. After graduating from high school in 1964, I worked in a shoe factory until 1965 when I enlisted for three years in the Army. Hiles graduated in 1965 and shortly thereafter enlisted in the Marines.
After two years of duty in U.S. bases, I was sent to Vietnam the Spring of 1967 and would be there until the summer of 1968. As it turns out, Hiles was also In-Country at the same time, though we never met. He was a Radio Operator stationed in Da Nang and I was a Personnel Specialist attached to the Adjutant General Office at Army Headquarters in Long Binh.
Both us felt the heat, the monsoons and the mud. Both us did guard duty, burned shit and were attacked during the massive enemy Tet Offensive of 68. Whereas Hiles saw gruesome combat up close, I saw its aftermath in field hospitals and the U.S. Mortuary in Saigon. 57 years later, Hiles wrote a book about his time there. Ironically, I’m the writer guy and will most likely never do that. If we ever meet, the first beers are on me. This book is the truth. There’s nothing else I can or want to say.
