To "recon by fire" is to let loose aggressively on suspected enemy positions. In this stylized Vietnam War memoir, McDonald (Blue Truth) lets loose with bursts of memories in the form of many short chapters, each of which deals with some aspect of the author's war experiences. McDonald went to Vietnam as a brand-new artillery second lieutenant in January 1968. He arrived after the Tet offensive and served for 11 months as a forward observer, moving throughout the Central Highlands in support of several American and South Vietnamese infantry units, including the 173rd Airborne Brigade, the Fourth Infantry Division and Green Beret teams. He worked in a three-man team and saw more than his share of action before leaving Vietnam on a medevac helicopter, the victim of a severe case of malaria. At his best, McDonald convincingly evokes the feel of the war from his ground-level perspective and his witnessing of much death and destruction. He describes the worst of it in an intense, in-your-face manner, sometimes using reconstructed dialogue and his imagination—although McDonald says that everything in the book "is real." Other stories are told more straightforwardly. McDonald has bitterly harsh things to say about Robert McNamara, Jane Fonda, war correspondents and combat photographers. He staunchly defends his fellow troops, calling them "regular young guys trying to do the best they could under ill-defined and difficult circumstances, trying not to shame themselves, and trying to get home where they belonged." Most vets would agree. (July)
