In the fall of 1961, upon entering Oklahoma State University's mandatory two year basic ROTC program, eighteen-year-old Charles L. Schwabe encountered the U.S. Army for the first time. At a time when U.S. involvement in and public awareness of Vietnam were minimal, President Kennedy challenged the author's generation: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." Soon convinced that assisting the new nation of South Vietnam resist the spread of communism was an honorable, worthwhile national and personal goal, the author responded to the challenge by...