Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 I was more prepared for death than I was for life when I returned from the war in 1967. I had learned how to face death and cause it, with everything on the evolutionary scale of weapons from the knife to the 3. 5-inch rocket launcher. #2 I grew up in Westchester, Illinois, one of the towns that rose from the prairies around Chicago as a result of postwar affluence, VA mortgage loans, and the migratory urge and housing shortage that sent millions of people out of the cities. #3 I wanted to join the Marines to prove something: my courage, my toughness, and my manhood. I had spent my freshman year at Purdue, freed from the confinements of suburban home and family, but a slump in the economy prevented me from finding a job. I had to transfer to Loyola, a commuter college in Chicago. #4 I was elated when I enlisted and swore to defend the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. I had done something important on my own, and I was excited by the idea that I would be sailing off to dangerous and exotic places after college instead of working in an office.