Until recently, it had never occurred to Vince to return to Vietnam. As a U.S. Marine, he had served the standard thirteen-month combat tour decades ago, collecting a sea bag full of memories and images, both disturbing and exhilarating. When he gratefully climbed aboard his "freedom flight" at Da Nang in early 1969 to go home to the States, he believed he was seeing that war-ravaged country for the last time.

Lately, though, he reflected on his experiences there and had come to realize that those few months had been a pivotal period in his life, forever coloring his perceptions...