These Good Men

For former Marine Norman, the Corps is a brotherhood that instills a strong sense of clan in its members. So, 16 years after a Viet Cong ambush on a bridge, he set out to track down 11 survivors of his platoon. One motive behind his quest was a desire to find out whether, as a 20-year-old radio commander, he left a man to die on that fatal day in 1968. His search brought absolution and a renewal of bonds of comradeship. Each ex-buddy had changed in a different way. One, an insurance executive, turned his wartime experiences into an ``incessant monologue,'' a ``series of comic skits.'' Another, a supervisor in a maximum-security prison infirmary, suffered an emotional breakdown just before freelance reporter Norman caught up with him. Told in simple, lean prose, this wistful Vietnam memoir is both personal catharsis and meditation on the anger, grief and loss caused by war. (Mar.)