The headlines in wartime are often a fabrication loosely based on actual events altered to serve a narrative directed by politicians in high places.

This sensitive and insightful coming of age story is set in one battlefield not often addressed in Vietnam War literature – military intelligence. The author's marvelous story telling style puts the reader into his boots as he learns that he is a cog in the war machine, an enterprise in which any means supposedly justified the end. Serving in the nation's top-secret cryptologic intelligence gathering facility hidden on a steamy island in the South China Sea, he works side by side with the National Security Agency, Army Security Agency, Navy Security Group, and the Air Force Security Service. The secrets he learns ultimately lead him and his friends to make a unique and bold protest against the war. It was a first of its kind and those in command are bewildered as to how to handle it.

This well-written book documents the author’s changing attitude toward the war, the military, and ultimately alters his consciousness toward the United States Government and particularly the military. It testifies to changing sentiments during a very volatile time and describes the many experiences that ultimately led to his act of defiance. Some of these episodes are humorous, absurd, and typical military SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) that sets the book apart from other Vietnam memoirs.

"It's not the violence or the mistruths perpetrated by the military and the government but the absurdity, (like Catch 22), that is at the heart of his rebellion. The Air Force doesn't know how to deal with him and his small band of rebels, which leads to the establishment's often hilarious and non-effective responses."