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MWSA Review
College completed, an anticipated career as an architect is interrupted for the author by induction threats into war in Vietnam. John Wyle has choices in the hand he is dealt. Graduate school with the risk of the draft into the unfavorable Army with its inevitable battlefield hardships and possible death or, as recommended by family friends, go Navy now and have a bed and three meals a day aboard ship. The author briefly details his early years’ experiences then begins concentrating accounts with his entry into Navy OCS. Details become more in-depth following his reporting aboard the World War II, LST 1150, USS Sutter County, his first assignment as a new ensign, the junior among eight officers. The officers’ daily poker games become a metaphor for life. Sometimes it is “a lucky draw.” But no matter, as he explains, one must execute with the hand dealt.
The author details his ‘dealt hands’ through a three-year Navy career and how unexpected assignments for which he had no experience, or some he could not even define, along with the people with which he is forced to work, establishes life-long bonding. Maturation for a mid-twenty’s college graduate, suddenly responsible for the lives of others, comes rapidly through meeting the challenges from many unexpected tasks. The greatest emotional impact affecting the author, however, is the combat death of a very close friend from his youth. The shock of this personal tragedy is driven deeper with the author’s assignment to escort his companion’s body home to a grieving pregnant widow and family.
The author brings remarkable accounts of atypical shipboard life aboard this small beach assault ship, with unusual assignments in a war following the war for which it was conceived and built. Some tales are somber to terrifying, and some are downright laugh-out-loud hi-jinks. The greatest lesson Wyle takes from his brief Navy career is the forever bonding of strangers through shared experiences during the brief intense period of war.
Review by Tom Beard (March 2023)
Author's Synopsis
This is the story of one man’s journey to manhood, based not on age, but experiences shared with friends who contributed to the evolution. Some of the author’s friendships were lifelong and formative, with others forged during the period leading to and through the Vietnam war.
Unlike so many stories focused on the war itself and the men who fought heroically, this book is about how relationships, most notably with the officers and crew of the USS Sutter County and the wartime culture they formed, brought about a new level of maturity that prepared them to meet the demands of a world in turmoil. It also taught resilience which would later be necessary to engage a much different world than the one that had faced the previous generation. These were experiences that transformed “The Boys of Sutter”, into The Men of the USS Sutter County LST1150.
It is also the story of how young men in the 1960s faced the draft, when on most evenings Vietnam’s escalating body count led on the nightly news. Women faced their own unique challenges to be full participants in American society which at the time did not include service in combat.
The story is told through the eyes of a young man from Alabama who, with his friends, found their way into the military, each with outcomes much different than expected, but all having been subjected to “The luck of the draw”. It is the author’s story of service, first aboard a WWII vintage LST running the rivers and coast of Vietnam, as well as ports throughout the South China Sea. It is a story of camaraderie, where emotions played on the routine of shipboard life, anxiety about the unexpected when in-country, and on occasion, sheer terror. It was where he and his shipmates learned to survive not just physically, but mentally as well … to paraphrase the Beatles … “With a little help from his friends.” And of the author’s friendships, one stands out - Morgan Weed, a best friend from high school who was killed in action and is now memorialized on a black granite wall in Washington DC. There and in the minds of family, friends, and the ones he led to battle, Morgan will remain ever present and honored by a grateful Nation.
From this tale of hi-jinks and fear, the author sums up his thoughts in an epilogue with lessons learned; from fighting a war, to the value of living in an interdependent community with all races and economic strata. He offers his hopes for America’s future which are rooted in service on the USS Sutter County LST 1150, a ship on which the author was lucky to have drawn duty.
Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle
Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography
Number of Pages: 156
Word Count: 60,000