Danger Close! A Vietnam Memoir

Gioia begins his memoir of the Vietnam War with memories of growing up an army brat in the years after World War II. After a childhood spent on military bases around the world, he attended the Virginia Military Institute. After graduation he was commissioned in the U.S. Army and completed Jump School and Ranger School. He landed in Vietnam in early 1968 and led a platoon in the 82nd Airborne Division into the siege of Hué and then led light infantry from the First Air Cavalry Division through the rubber plantations near the Cambodian border. Like Philip Caputo’s A Rumor of War and Johnnie Clark’s Guns Up!, Gioia’s memoir provides a raw account of the war from training exercises to the pitch black nights of patrols in the middle of a war zone. Gioia provides a first-hand account of his time as a soldier, but he also explains the decision-making process of military leaders to give context to his experience. An epilogue recounts the effects of this war on the U.S. military.