CAPTAIN BULLEN'S WAR - John Bullen

I have just gone through a short martial period with my reading and it was purely unintentional. I just kept coming across good books set during wars.

This latest is no exception. It is the Vietnam War diary of Captain John Bullen, who was the officer in charge of the Australian Topographical Section stationed at Nui Dat with the Australian Task Force. He was stationed there for a period of 13 months and kept a daily diary.

Bullen was a career soldier ,a Captain on his posting and was made up to Major by the end of his tour. As he was a career soldier we don't get any overt criticism of his superiors or the fact that Australian was even in the war but we get little asides at pedantic behaviour by several of his senior officers.

He was not a combat soldier but was called upon several times while duty officer to deal with attacks on the task forces perimeter which was constantly probed by NVA and Viet Cong forces.

We get a good daily report of how Australian troops fought and (mis)behaved when not fighting. Bullen was a teetotaller so he is to my way of thinking a bit over critical of drunken behaviour by troops who had been out getting shot at and then getting hugely on the grog.

There is also a very good account of how the mail strikes and such back in Australia organised by communist unions affected the morale of the troops. The author had a leading hand in the "Punch a Postie" campaign and he should have got a medal for this alone.

A very good diary and well worth the effort if you can find it. The book was only published in 2009 and the copy I have is a review one I found second hand in Wellington, so there might be a few about.

MATTERHORN - Karl Marlantes

This novel has nothing to do with Switzerland, rather it is set in Vietnam during the war. The Matterhorn is a code name for a small hill where several hundred men end up dieing because one officer needs to make an impression so he can keep on getting promoted.

It follows the trials of a Marine platoon over a period of approximately 3 months as they fight in an area just south of the DMZ.

The author was a Marine 2nd Lieutenant in an area just like this during the war and I believe the majority of the novel is totally auto-biographical. One review I read, whose author had done some research found that Marlantes citation for his Navy Cross reads very similarly to an incident in his novel.

In the book there are several threads, particularly 'race' issues between the black Marines and white officers and NCO's, the boredom, the terror and then of course the waste that is always evident in war novels.

The writing is very very good and the cover blurbs compare it to Sasson's writing of the 1st World War and the Naked and the Dead by Mailer, (this author certainly saw a lot more combat than Mailer did ).Its great reading and recommended.

Even though it is set in Vietnam, it has only been published in 2010, so its on all the book shelves now

IN PHARAOH'S ARMY - Tobais Wolff

This not really a memoir of the Vietnam War , rather, it is the second memoir of Tobais Wolff who just happened to end up in the Vietnam War. Well , he ended up there because he volunteered but in the late 60's you weren't going anywhere else than Asia.

It is short and written 30 odd years after his service and it is great.

He has the knack of being extremely funny in the most gruelling circumstances.

A highlight is going to the trouble, with his sergeant, to steal a 25 inch colour television so they can watch..............a two hour Bonanza special.

But then after all this trouble he does something incredibly human and gives it away to a local who doesn't have TV and they have to watch Bonanza on a black and white set.

There is actually very little about fighting or war stuff like that in the book. There are only a couple of incidents re countered where he nearly lost his life but basically it concentrates on the boredom and futility of the whole thing.

He is proud to be there but he soon sees he's surrounded by idiots - mainly fellow officers. This is a constant in any book about the military, - the officers are fools- there must be something in this.

There is also a lot about his relationship with his father, who is a con man ex-convict. He spends a lot of time with him after his discharge from the army, and this is quit warming as the relationship has not been good due the fathers life style and what he has done to the family.

Lastly I wonder if Mr. Wolff has ever been able to buy another puppy.