Replacements: Endless War and the Men Sent to Fight It Paperback – 17 June 2016

Alan Quale's "Replacements" is a compelling read start to finish, especially for someone who not only remembers well that time in our history, but also had firsthand experience going in and out of that country on MAC (Military Air Command) flights. .It truly brought me back to a time in the late 1960s when I was a flight attendant and taking troops many, many times in and out of Saigon, Da Nang, Ben Hoi, and Camranh Bay. I always wondered when I dropped them off, how many would be coming back. Obviously the author wondered that, too, when he was immersed in serving his country in the land of “Replacements.”Alan did an extraordinary job stepping back in time to recapture the mood of those times. I commend him for doing that.This book certainly provides a fresh and frank perspective on what those based in Vietnam experienced on the lines.You need to buy "Replacements" to get an accurate and well-written account of what happened to GIs serving in the Vietnam War which I refuse to call a "Conflict" as we were supposed to think of it. If you really want to show veterans who served back then that you understand and appreciate what they did, buy two or more copies and given them to a Veterans Hospital, a Library or someone else who needs to know what it was really like.-- Ro L

After watching a good part of the massive series, "The Vietnam War" by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, I wasn’t sure about diving into even more about the war that shaped my generation. But Alan Quale’s, novel “Replacements,” kept me interested from the start – make that from the dedication page to his late mother who saved the letters home he incorporated into his book. Unlike the cool and collected view of a documentary maker, Quale draws from his own experience for his fictionalized account in a personal and relatable way. He gives us Vietnam through the eyes of a young American who receives his draft notice on the same day he graduates from the University of North Dakota. He writes about the daily hopes and fears of a soldier who made it out but continues to wonder why: why he made it and why we were there in the first place. After all these years, there is still much to say about "America's longest war" and “Replacements” certainly adds to my own understanding. It’s a good read!

I read this book in just a little over a day; it was very hard to put down! I had a hard time reading it because my own brother spent time in Vietnam- he rarely spoke of it and he passed away in 1978 at the age of 27. Very often I think of what he may have seen, the words that he may have spoken - but never lived long enough for those words to spill out! I shed countless tears and still do over the reality of the war and your story! I read this through the eyes of the little girl who remembers Alan while growing up - I mostly remember his smile - now I see him as a man who went through the horror of horrors and has survived this horrible ordeal! Yes, though hard to read because of the reality of the war, it is a must read . . . thank you so much for sharing! I'm sure your spoken words are helping many who have been unable to speak of it!

I've read several memoirs of the Vietnam War but never something like this. Quale is a fantastic storyteller. Reading it, I felt like I was right there beside him, whether he was riding through Duc Pho, past the Catholic orphanage where the orphans sold marijuana; or supervising churlish villagers as they helped build bunkers; or shaking through an all-night rocket attack; or hearing a fellow GI confess to a grisly murder. There's a lot of darkness in this book, but a lot of humor, too. (Get to the part where he's ready to catch the plane for R&R, and you'll see what I mean.) Each chapter ends with a letter Quale wrote to his family -- a reminder of how soldiers often gloss over the horrors and hardships of war for the sake of their friends and family back home. But beyond the letters, Quale doesn't gloss over anything. The story ends with Quale back home, which presented even more challenges. This is a valuable read for anyone who wants a unique perspective on a war that changed the country forever.

Even all these years later, iI have a hard time understanding how horrific Vietnam was for our troops and then we treated them badly when they returned home. This book is written like you are there in the steaming jungles, or at night during fire fights, actually every word on every page is gripping. After a while I wanted to go home as badly as the men did.I am happy that this was written. These men and women need to get their stories out so they can heal. If those that stayed behind gets a little discomfort that is still nothing like what these men and women did. Read it!