Violent Season (a review) "Violent Season" By Ray Gleason
- a review by Ray Voith

Ray Gleason wrote a book, "Violent Season", about his experiences as a rifleman in Vietnam. I think it deserves to be read by anyone of that era and also those interested in what people experience in wars of any era.

In the book, Ray says:
"I never thought that I would end up in Vietnam, but there I was at the volcano and up on the Chu Pa, surviving day to day and hoping to get through it all and get home safely. I experienced that bond tying the soldiers together, and also that feeling that back home was a strange foreign place."

Well, I didn't really directly experience those things. I did not know anyone closely who went to Vietnam, so I never had any sense of what that experience was like, until I read "Violent Season". I want to thank Ray for sharing his experiences. I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to re-live those days.

The portrayal of soldiers, both friends and enemy, as basically the same; young men caught in a senseless war, touched me deeply. I cried for the soldiers, for their families and friends, and for all those caught up in the war (especially Margot asking Green "ne me quitte pas").

This book comes as close as I can imagine to placing me there on the spot in Vietnam, and also making me experience the difficulty and confusion of coming home and adjusting to a normal life.

Thanks to Ray for writing this book, and especially for serving our country in, perhaps, our most controversial war.