Dead Center: A Marine Sniper's Two-Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War

I'm going to read this one next...Everyone interested in vietnam books should read about Carlos Hathcock II. Marine Sniper & Silent Warrior are both excellent (Charles Henderson). Must reads!!!

Interesting shading to tiresome (10/12 people found this helpful)

In the introduction, the author, Ed Kugler, claims "it's the best damned Nam book you'll ever read!" Well, maybe. But even the "best damned" of anything gets tiresome after awhile. Admittedly, Ed tells a good tale of his coming of age in Nam as a Marine sniper while learning to lead the "good guys" of his side, and kill the "bad guys" of the other side. It's told with the unflagging energy and Weltanschauung of a 20-year old. But that's the problem. The book was published in 1999, presumably recently written by the author while in his early 50's. Until the epilogue, I didn't see any evidence of wisdom accumulated in the three decades since Nam that might have otherwise tempered his narrative. Too bad, since Ed has been at the top management levels of both PepsiCo and Compaq Computer Corporation. I mean, he must have grown up just a little since the 60's, right? I'm in my 50's too, and Ed's book left me none the wiser from his experience.

great Nam book (2/2 people found this helpful)

There are lots of juicy & compelling Nam stories here, but most importantly Kugler is a great story-teller: he remembers & arranges the details of weather, mud, dead Marines, the sound of bullets, wind, artillery, etc. with a born story-teller's gift: you feel like you're there. i'd guess this wasn't ghostwritten - i can't imagine any ghostwriter could write this well! The Kug has the born storyteller's zeal for life, detail, action; and a deeper sensitivity to the psychological wounds & weirdness of killing, that at times remind me of Michael Herr's Dispatches or 'Apocalypse Now'.

This book is emotionally grabbing!!!!!!!!! (3/4 people found this helpful)

This book describes the truth of what happened in vietnam.The soldiers he served with and the events that happened.Some events are funny and some are really painful to read about.Trust me this book is a very good insight into the vietnam war.The friendship shwn in this book is amazing.

A worm's eye view of the Vietnam war in barrack room style (31/35 people found this helpful)

A poorly educated, inarticulate small town boy joins the Marines for glory, adventure and the chance to kill people. He volunteers for sniper duty in Vietnam and spends two years alternately crawling around the mud "wasting gooks" or inflicting severe alcohol poisoning upon himself on R&R. Written in blue barrack room language in a stream of consciousness style that is as tedious as it is inarticulate, this adds nothing to our understanding of the infantryman's war in Vietnam beyond the conclusions that jungle warfare is dirty and unpleasant in the extreme and that most of the US ground forces there hadn't the remotest idea why they were there.

There are far better and far more literate accounts of what the war was like for the front line infantryman (try "once a Warrior King" by David Donovan or "FNG" by Donald Bodey), far better specialist studies of sniping in Vietnam (try Michael Lee Lanning's "Inside the Crosshairs") and many more insightful accounts of the American experience in Vietnam. If you only read one Vietnam book, make it "Bright Shining Lie" by Neil Sheehan. This is strictly a book for those who like their military memoirs served raw with plenty of muck, foul language and alcohol.

Dead Center: A Marine Sniper's Two-Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War

Ed Kugler

Reader Reviews:

going to read this one next... (0/0 people found this helpful)

Interesting shading to tiresome (10/12 people found this helpful)

great Nam book (2/2 people found this helpful)

This book is emotionally grabbing!!!!!!!!! (3/4 people found this helpful)

A worm's eye view of the Vietnam war in barrack room style (31/35 people found this helpful)

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