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MWSA Review
Legacy is not a word lightly used, and Christy Sauro aptly applies it to the members of the Twins Platoon. In 2006, Sauro released The Twins Platoon, but the call to capture the legacy these warriors left resulted in The Legacy of the Twins Platoon. I picked up the eBook version and was thoroughly immersed into the lives of a variety of characters, their dreams, their dedication, and their sacrifice. The narrative is colorful, descriptive and easy to chase the next page.
The gripping tale of readjustment to post-Vietnam is candid and a must-read for anyone in a relationship with a veteran and every lonely veteran struggling. Sauro sheds light on how the burden of sacrifice in an unpopular or unjust war only prolongs the conflict after the bullets stop. Sauro set out to honor 150 Marines and those who never came home and ended up with a tribute to the millions of Vietnam and other veterans, their families, and their everlasting sacrifices.
Review by Galen Peterson
Author's Synopsis
In early June 1967, Marine Corps recruits from Minneapolis-St. Paul and outlying Minnesota received a letter stating all those scheduled for active duty in June would go as one platoon on June 28, 1967. One hundred fifty Marine applicants would be shipped to San Diego, California, to the recruit training depot. The Minnesota Twins baseball team was sponsoring the unit.
They were sworn in on television at a pregame ceremony and were guests of the Twins at the game. By the end of the fourth inning, the recruits were hustled to buses whisking them to the Wold-Chamberlain Field Airport, and they flew to San Diego. Before dawn the next day, the Twins Platoon met their drill sergeants at the receiving barracks of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot. By the end of the year, the Marines were in Vietnam sprinkled across the length and breadth of the Marine Corps operating areas of I Corps, the northernmost part of South Vietnam where they experienced some of the toughest combat of the war. Khe Sanh and Hue City were just a few of the hot spots they encountered as the 1968 TET Offensive rolled across the country. Not all members of the Twins Platoon came home in one piece. Some did not come home at all. In The Legacy of the Twins Platoon, author Christy Sauro Jr. tells their complete stories from baseball to combat and their lifelong readjustment to civilian life.
Format(s) for review: Paper or Kindle
Review genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography
Pages/Word count: 381 / 111,022