Walter McDermott graduated with honors from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1968, enlisted in the U.S. Army and was sent to the Mekong Delta in 1969 at the height of the Vietnam War. A specialist with the Ninth Infantry Division, he provided artillery support to infantry patrols while struggling to cope with the authoritarian severity of the Army and the Alice-in-Wonderland madness of the war. His frank memoir relates the surreality of combat and traces his own metamorphosis from thoughtful undergrad to jaded veteran.