"This collection of stories put to verse paints a vivid picture of an exceptional time in the lives of young men sent to war. The reader is transported to a time and place where one can see, touch, taste, smell and hear many of the experiences of these men during training in Australia and in the jungles of South Vietnam. There's more to war than bullets, bombs and blood. There's sweat and tears, colour, humour and mateship and a sense of pushing one's self beyond normal human endurance. The author brings back the memories in a manner that makes you feel that you are there once again."

Michael Carroll DCM

On 'Cracker Night' 1966, the Fifth Battalion, loaded aboard choppers, became the first Australian combat unit to land amongst the rubber trees at Nui Dat, Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam. It was also the first unit to contain conscripts selected to fight a war outside Australian territory. The history of that decade-long war for Australians has been written largely by academics, journalists, and others, most of whom were far removed from the events that had been experienced by the front line soldier.

Take a trip back through time via poetic imagery, seen through the eyes of one of those National Servicemen who had been sent to fight the Viet Cong. The journey begins with the ill-fated French attempt to hang onto a colonial past and moves through the early days of Conscription and training for the war that followed. You will then share in the danger, frustrations, anger and disappointments, hardships, horrors, humour and camaraderie of young men caught up in jungle warfare. This emotional story concludes with a vivid portrait of the aftermath which appears, for some, to have no end.