Memories Unleashed: Vietnam Legacy

by Carl Rudolph Small

Overview

A memoir of the Vietnam War written as a series of short stories.

This memoir of the Vietnam War is structured as a series of short stories that convey the emotional and physical landscape of the Vietnam War. It is a window into the war from the perspective of the author, who served in a rapid response assault force, as 'the Marine.'

The reader shares the Marine's experience through a year of combat that tested his character and shaped his destiny. Small joined the Marine Corps in 1969 at 19 years old, coming from a small Vermont farming community. After boot camp and specialty training he landed in Da Nang as a private first class. With three battlefield promotions in 8 months, he soon became a platoon sergeant.

Small did not talk of his experiences in Vietnam over the next forty years, but has now written this book for veterans' families, including his own, to understand what their loved ones experienced. It is a unique and powerful text that is written in such a way it brings you inside the marine; you see what he sees, feel what he feels. You know him, his back story, what he is thinking, why he made the decisions he needed to make. No names are mentioned throughout the book.

Memories Unleashed is an assemblage of memories, consisting of stories that stand alone to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. It addresses the warrior, the lives of innocent people caught up in the war, and the American and Vietnamese families impacted by those who fought.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781612006987
Publisher:	Casemate Publishers
Publication date:	04/25/2019
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Carl Small joined the Marine Corps in 1969 and served 13 months in a Special Landing Force operating in 1 Corps, Vietnam. This is the first time he has spoken of the war. Two of the stories from the Memories Unleashed collection have placed first in the New Hampshire Writer's Project Regional Flash competition - 'Coming Home' and 'The Good Letters Home'. 'The Good Letters Home' was also published in Writer Advice Literary Magazine Sept 2014. He has authored a children's book, The Indoor Cat's Outdoor Adventure (Rose Dog Books, 2015).

Editorial Reviews

06/17/2019

Debut author Small takes an innovative approach to his fairly typical combat experience in the Vietnam War, structuring this brief, introspective memoir as a series of short stories written in the third person, referring to himself only as “the marine.” During his 1969–1970 tour of duty, Small saw much combat as a Marine Corps rifleman in two assault force units—a “ ‘Grunt’; ground-pounder; man-hunter,” as he puts it—though his mind turned often to prayer and his beloved girlfriend at home. The best stories evoke the world of a Marine Corps grunt in and out of combat: killing a Viet Cong soldier in hand-to-hand combat, bartering chocolate bars for a tree to decorate for Christmas to boost morale, confronting fellow servicemembers’ addictions, approaching a village only to see a parent run past and set down a swaddled baby, for protection. The recreations of war experiences are powerfully written in sincere, staccato prose. Those looking for a creative, slightly different type of Vietnam War memoir will find this one to their taste. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

The combat action is well-described and all the stories are well told. [...] Complete stories can be told in a small number of pages if you do it right, and Small frequently does.

The VVA Veteran

"A fascinating read and I think it is worth saying thank you to author Carl Small for finally feeling able to write down his experiences and share them with the rest of us at last."

Military Model Scene

"Carl Small waited fifty years to put down on paper what his war in Vietnam was like. There is no argument here, no quarrel with history, just a fierce focused account of one man's year in the kind of close combat that was hard to talk about and hard to forget. What Small pursues in these 43 stories is the strangeness of war, where nothing and everything mattered."

Tom Powers

"Told through the perspective of a young marine squad leader serving in Vietnam, I can't imagine a more immediate and eloquent account of what it is like to experience the horror, the foreboding, even the tedium of war. Like the marine's sweetheart who awaits his love letters and return to their small town, I found myself praying page after page- be safe, come home, be safe, come home..."

Jone B. Cole author of Good Naked: Reflections on How to Write More

‘’...for those interested in how the Vietnam War was fought on the ground. Small achieves total emotional immersion for the reader, not an easy effect to pull off in a slim volume. He brings the sights, smells, and sounds of the war to the page, assisted by his snapshot kodak photographs of young men sent into a situation for which few were prepared. Small rarely considers the wider war and what it meant, concerned more for his squad and their small and often violent world. Reading Small’s unleashed memories is an experience in itself.’’

Wargames Illustrated

"The book is so rich with detailed descriptions; it is if it had happened yesterday. Many readers may find feeling it evokes difficult; they are so clear and powerful".

Vermont Standard - Heather Steliga

"Told through the perspective of a young marine squad leader serving in Vietnam, I can't imagine a more immediate and eloquent account of what it is like to experience the horror, the foreboding, even the tedium of war. Like the marine's sweetheart who awaits his love letters and return to their small town, I found myself praying page after page- be safe, come home, be safe, come home..."

Jone B. Cole author of Good Naked: Reflections on How to Write More