Research Catalog

Title

A temporary sort of peace : a memoir of Vietnam / James McGarrah.

Author

McGarrah, Jim, 1948-

Publication

Indianapolis : Indiana Historical Society Press, 2007.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

ix, 251 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"In his memoir, McGarrah, today a poet and writer from southern Indiana, examines in detail his peacetime life in Indiana, his indoctrination into the cult of the marines as a fledgling warrior in basic training at Parris Island in South Carolina, and his introduction to the life of a combat soldier in Vietnam observing bulging body bags at an air base's morgue in Da Nang and going to his first assignment armed with a malfunctioning M-16 rifle. Many years later, the former private first class, serial number 2371586, realized that for him, home had become 'the jungles of Vietnam, the one place where life was at its best and worst simultaneously every minute of every day.' The book also includes the author's days with a small marine Combat Action Group trying to win the hearts and minds of Vietnamese in the village of Gia Le, his wounding by shrapnel from a rocket-propelled grenade during the height of the Tet Offensive, and dealing with his war memories back home in the United States. In August 2005, at the age of fifty-seven, McGarrah returned to Vietnam, visiting the sites of his former battles with his son and sharing memories of the past and future with a Vietnamese poet in a graceful peace ceremony in Hue"--Publisher.

Subjects

• Soldiers
• United States > Marine Corps
• Soldat
• USA
• McGarrah, Jim, 1948-
• Biography
• Vietnamkrieg
• Indiana
• Soldiers > Indiana > Biography
• Vietnam War, 1961-1975 > Personal narratives, American
• Vietnam War (1961-1975)
• Personal narratives > American
• United States > Marine Corps > Biography
• 1961 - 1975

Genre/Form

• Biography.
• Personal narratives – American.

Contents

Dead reckoning : a treaty of the mind -- Hot toddy -- Slippery when wet -- How do I love thee -- Blind barber -- A matter of priorities -- Hey Joe, where you goin with that gun in your hand? -- Contact -- CAG -- Oh, I was so much older then -- The robin -- The sky is crying -- Cahn cho -- A ghost in the machine -- A temporary sort of peace -- Time held me green and dying -- Epilogue you can't go home again.

ISBN

• 9780871952585
• 0871952580

LCCN

2007010528

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library