Galliano D'Alessandro
The most asked question: Why Agent Orange?
Because it is intriguing and not classified as an illusion because it's real and even debatable. Is there any difference if I had picked the First Air Cavalry Division, Vietnam, or even Walter Reed Hospital? There's no difference because it's a war no matter how you look at it. When you are in it, you have got to do the best you can do.
Why did I pick Agent Orange?
I picked Agent Orange because this book is not fiction. It is the story of my son, and if I may say so, it is a good book. It is good for both the younger and older generations. It is also good for all nationalities, most of all the American Patriot.
VIVA LA PATRIA
Challenge is something I thrive on. I studied and mastered radio and television, when in their prime. Then I tried custom built-in cabinet making. I reached a very high level that kept me busy for 30 years. Then I jumped to writing seriously, because my first dream was to write a book. However in the late sixties and early seventies I had a sports column all about soccer in about 10 Philadelphia and Pennsylvania suburban papers. I also wrote a column for the Philadelphia Spartans professional soccer team, program and traveled with them to cover some of their away games. This was the big professional league that was formed with players like Pele, Beckenbauer, Chinaglia and so on. Anyway this league didn’t last long for many reasons that are too numerous to mention. My work with soccer was definitely not profitable but we had a lot of fun. While I was involved with soccer, my son was in the service and also in Vietnam. I tried very hard to avoid him going there but the worst happened. It took me a lot of time to find out what I wanted to find out. Because the whole situation turned out to be very intriguing that’s why I am writing this book. It’s definitely non-fiction. It’s the story of my son and maybe I convinced myself why it happened and how.
Three years after I got married I had a baby, and this baby is what I’m writing about. A wonderful boy, handsome, beautiful, healthy, talented, I’m not bragging, he had all these things. Very, very nice, but what happened?
We tried to bring him up the best way, American way, the best way we could. He went to Catholic school, became an altar boy, served masses with priests, in our own parish. Like many kids of his age, at around 13 or 14 he got involved in a little job, he got a paper route delivering the Philadelphia Bulletin. The afternoon paper that was still in business at the time. So while he was going to school, he had this paper route and he used ride his bike and deliver the Bulletin in a section of Philadelphia not too far away from where we lived.
