A Soldier of the Second Civil War

By mid 1968 a great craziness had come upon the land. America’s Second Civil War raged on two continents and the casualty count on both fronts soared as self-serving politicians, military leaders, covert CIA operatives and social extremists at both ends of the spectrum began eating their nation’s young. They nearly succeeded in devouring an entire generation.

In August 1968 Daniel Cerrano was likely the most reluctant and embittered of the 82,000 plus draft-age young men ordered to report for induction into the United States Army. By March 1970 he had become a highly decorated combat veteran with a secret so terrible he would have to take it to his grave. A Soldier of the Second Civil War is his story: a shocking, never-before-published account of the most shameful slice of the Vietnam War and of the most heinous act of treason in the annals of American military history.

A Soldier of the Second Civil War is an intensely human drama that lays bare the soul of a man and a nation in crisis. It is a tale of inner turmoil and strife, of battered conscience and sensibilities, of manipulation and deceit, of treachery and treason, of betrayal and corruption in high places. It is also the gut-wrenching, frighteningly realistic account of one young man’s honor, courage and sacrifice in the most dishonorable of circumstances.

In his preface to Heartbreak House, George Bernard Shaw cynically lamented “what is there to say except that war puts a strain on human nature that breaks down the better half of it, and makes the worse half a diabolical virtue.” From beginning to end, that hauntingly prophetic theme echoes throughout A Soldier of the Second Civil War in alternating shouts and whispers. And yet, it is doubtful that Shaw in his cynical prime could have envisioned the magnitude of vulgarity and moral depravity that characterized America’s Vietnam experience.

From a historical perspective, A Soldier of the Second Civil War affords an un-retouched, sobering look back at both the best and the worst in ourselves as individuals and as a nation. It is a family portrait, in sepia tones, of a generation caught up in an awfulness beyond their control--and beyond their comprehension. It also provides a graphic Technicolor ® look into the bowels of the Vietnam War as seen through the anguished, angry eyes of a young American soldier whose combat tour turned into a malignant nightmare.

This is not a story for the timid or faint of heart. Not only does it revisit the age old struggle between good and evil, it examines the darker, potentially diabolical side of human nature (to which Shaw referred) as it chronicles the actions of an otherwise morally decent and self-respecting young man in response to an overwhelming tide of anger, grief, absurdity and the unspeakable deeds of others.

A Soldier of the Second Civil War is not merely another perilous adventure story set amid the uncertainties and abject horrors of war (no predictable Rambo heroics; no glorious testicle-clanging charge up San Juan Hill or single-handed defense of Heartbreak Ridge). Rather, it is an odyssey through unfamiliar and uncomfortable crevices in the human psyche – a glimpse into the sinister dungeon that exists somewhere on the dark side of human nature just beyond the pale of moral consciousness – where live the odious personal demons who inhabit us all.

Daniel Cerrano danced with his demons. He danced to the point of near madness…some say beyond. He had been a most unwilling party to the war until the anger boiling in his gut, compounded by personal tragedy, so filled him with bitterness and violent rage that South Vietnam suddenly became the only place on earth fit for him to be. And once there, he began venting his pent up rage with such lethal efficiency and frequency that he soon became the one soldier most hated and feared…by both sides.

To the NVA troops and Viet Cong operating in and around the area assigned to 2^nd Battalion / 25^th Infantry Division, he quickly became the living breathing embodiment of death. He was more than an elusive sniper waiting in ambush. He was a relentless, ruthless man-hunter…the consummate predator with no face his enemy came to call the Green Ghost. He could reach out from distant shadows and kill them at will, then simply vanish like the wind until he chose to strike again. Whenever their patrols ventured into his personal hunting ground, they did so with the certain knowledge that at least one or two of them would die ugly. Until they found a way to end his paralyzing reign of terror, they were at his mercy…and he had none.

During his first three months in the bush, PFC Cerrano was officially credited with 43 confirmed kills, a career total for most men in his line of work. But official numbers were unimportant to him since the unofficial ones “were just as dead!” The only “body count” he cared about were the bodies he counted in the crosshairs of his rifle’s telescopic sight.

By the end of that same three month period, he had also received a Meritorious Commendation for Bravery personally signed by his theater commander and a field promotion to the rank of Spec 4 which was equivalent to Corporal (E-4). However, the highest tribute to his effectiveness was paid by the North Vietnamese themselves. A leaflet removed from the breast pocket of a dead NVA soldier had been forwarded to U.S. Army Intelligence for translation and then passed on to the 25^th Infantry’s Brigade Commander. It was, in effect, a wanted poster signed by the senior field commander of the 141^st NVA Regiment offering a bounty in the amount of three month’s pay and a promotion in rank to any soldier or sniper who killed the Green Ghost. The hunter had himself become the hunted.