When I Turned Nineteen: A Vietnam War Memoir : Glyn Haynie
Writing this book was the first time that I examined in detail my experiences with First Platoon in Vietnam. Over the past 47 years, I had never discussed it with my First Platoon brothers or even my best friend Mike Dankert, who was with me during it all. I don’t know which is more difficult, reliving the events of 1969 while writing the book or sharing my story.
It’s the year 1969. I was serving in the U.S. Army with my brothers of First Platoon Company A 3rd Battalion/1st Infantry Regiment 11th Brigade Americal (23rd Infantry) Division. We were average American sons, fathers, husbands, or brothers who’d enlisted or been drafted from all over the United States and who’d all come from different backgrounds. We came together and formed a brotherhood that will last through time.
I share my experiences about weeks of boredom and minutes to hours of terror and surviving the heat, carrying a 60-pound rucksack, monsoons, a forest fire, a typhoon, building a firebase, fear, death and fighting the enemy while mentally, physically, and morally exhausted.
Finding My Platoon Brothers: Vietnam Then and Now by Glyn Haynie is also on Whizbuzz Books.