Vietnam #1: I Pledge Allegiance

Morris, Rudi, Ivan and Beck have been best friends since fourth grade. They pledged that if one of them got drafted into the war that they would all go. When Rudi who is one year older receives his draft notice, they all sign up to serve in different branches of the military. Morris has long been plagued with nightmares of the Vietnam War and he feels it is his duty to watch over his friends and to make sure they stay alive. Rudy who has never been very smart always feels out of place until he serves in the military and there he finds a place where he can succeed and feel good about himself in a way he has never been able to before. When Morris is pulled from duty on his first ship he is moved to the Brown Water Navy which is stationed on the Mekong Delta. Their job is to take out snipers that are hidden in the bushes on shore. When he is reassigned to the shores of Vietnam, Morris’s outlook on war changes as he faces battle, death and the desire to keep his friends alive. Book one deals mainly with Morris. The others in this series will in turn have each of the other boys as the main character. There were a few chapters at the start that I thought were a little wordy and seemed to drag but once you got past that the story took off, getting more intense the further you read. Recommended by: Joleen Waltman, Librarian, Idaho USA