Farewell, Ham Tan Arty: An Artilleryman’s Journal during the Vietnam War Drawdown

A college senior graduating today may face the daunting challenges of mountainous student debt and questionable job prospects, but not the horrific predicament a student of the 1960’s confronted with the military draft and imminent deployment to fight a deadly and thankless war in Vietnam. FAREWELL, HAM TAN ARTY, An Artilleryman’s Journal during the Vietnam War Drawdowntakes you back with the author as he contemplated the options: flee to Canada, seek special favors to avoid serving, or answer my country’s call.

Much has been written of battles, heroic actions, and fatal political blunders. But what about the average young person pursuing the daily tasks of life, amidst a campus torn by anti-war protests, through dehumanizing training in the sweltering heat of a Georgia summer, playing at war in the former Nazi camps of Germany, then finally on the ground in Vietnam, hoping to survive while carrying out orders from distant generals, and calming the fears of loved ones back home.

My experiences as an artillery officer, advancing from fire bases to province headquarters, speak out from a dust-stained journal, next to letters home nuanced to soften depictions of the dangers of the war zone that lay hidden between the lines. Modern readers seek to go behind the sensationalism of war to contemplate how relationships were maintained with loved ones so far away, and the importance of those connections for boosting morale and fostering hope for the future. Whether through letters written, “Care” packages received, or a remote MARS radiophone call to a mother on Christmas Eve from deep within the distant hinterlands of Vietnam, the feelings expressed melt away the miles, at least for a moment.