A Time To Remember
A Tale of the Viet Nam Conflict
by
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CHAPTER ONE
Am I my brother’s keeper?”–Genesis IV: 10b
He slowly returned to consciousness, consumed by the pain in his chest. It was more than he could bear and once again he passed out, wondering all the while what it was that was jolting him, making the pain even worse.
* * * * *
Again he awoke, feeling the agony that sat on his chest. He reached for its center only to be swept with the scourges of agony. In the short time he was able to touch his chest, he felt a stickiness and, looking at his fingers, saw that they were covered with blood. The jolting was still there and, painfully turning his head, he discovered that he was lying in the back of a beat-up old pickup that bounced along a nearly nonexistent road. He noticed that his face was stiff with dried blood and tried to recall why that should be.
Why the blood? Why the pain in his chest? He faded once again into nothingness.
* * * * *
Images flashed through his mind, painful, aching, scourging, tormenting. Flickering visions of death and life. He thought of soldiers he had known: Weathers. Pappas. Hays and
CHAPTER TWO
“For all his days are sorrows.”–Ecclesiastes II: 23a
The truck jolted through the countryside for several hours. As the time passed, Captain Doug Andrews kept his eyes fixed on the landscape outside the vehicle. If he were ever to escape, it would be crucial to know something about his location, about the cardinal points of the compass, about streams and rivers, about crossed roadways, about hamlets and villages, about fields and dikes, about the size of the rural population in this area.
He was soon confused. Too much information crowded upon him, overpowering his weakened ability to concentrate. He was even unsure what part of Viet Nam he was traveling through save that the way chosen by the driver cut through thick triple canopy jungle. Was he above the 17th parallel and thus in “Indian” territory? Was he traveling through one of the many provinces below that line in which Viet Cong power held sway, denying control to the legitimate
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About the Book
Cecil Barr Currey, an acclaimed professor of military history and award-winning author of the novel, Innocence Dies (lstBooks Library, 2001), again turns his attention to the
A Time to Remember continues their story. Neither Andrews nor Szigmond died. Currey tells how they were wounded, captured by the enemy and thrown into a northern prison to face daily terror and torture. Finally escaping, for months the two men make their way south toward safety. Currey brilliantly recounts their suffering, courage, and steadfast determination once again to pick up the thread of their lives. Returning, Andrews faces a court-martial for leading an alleged massacre of Vietnamese civilians. A Time to Remember tells the poignant story of his trial and its aftermath.
About the Author
Acclaimed by reviewers here and abroad, award-winning author and well-known university professor of military history Cecil Barr Currey, understands the land, people, and history of
Currey lives with his wife Laura in south