You Ain't Gonna Believe This But... A Different Perspective of Vietnam

About the Book

This collection of short stories is intended to illustrate a more humorous glimpse of a soldier's life in Vietnam. It's of the times when boredom and a fertile imagination often lead to amusing situations, rather than the "blood and guts" of combat.

All the narratives in this book, saves one, are true, or at least were presented to the author as fact. Some are without a doubt true, as they happened to the author. Other Vietnam veterans related the remainder of the yarns, swearing that each and every detail was unquestioningly genuine. We all know that combat veterans do not lie but their memories may, nevertheless recall their experiences slightly altered from actual events. Perusing these stories the reader might logically conclude that ego or passing years might, just possibly, influence a few of the bone-chilling tales.

GI's live through numerous happenstances that are not heroic but are embarrassing or mundane. No matter how cynical a GI becomes, some events, maybe only in retrospect, are viewed as ironic or downright funny. These random experiences are what the book are about.

About the Author

Born in Baird, Texas, Stanley S. McGowen served in Vietnam as an Infantry Platoon Leader and Company Commander, as well as a Military Intelligence Officer with the 101st Airborne Division. He spent twenty-one years in the US Army serving in the US, Vietnam, Panama, Europe and Alaska. After losing his sight in an airplane crash in 1990, the author returned to university life, where he earned an MA and PhD in American History. McGowen lives in Weatherford, Texas where he divides his time between teaching college courses and writing.