Field Wars

Joe runs into a hidden punji trap, and the poisoned stakes deal him a hammer blow. A dustoff back to Da Nang and a long stay in the hospital puts him out of action, and the only consolation is the pretty nurse who attends to his wounds. When he is released, his platoon is in the field, and they give him a temporary posting to another platoon about to fly out to the Laotian border to check out a rumored convoy of vital supplies, weapons, and ammo for the VC.

Elizabeth "Bette" Leigh Black comes of age in the years before WWII. Although money is scarce in the aftermath of the Depression, her home with her mother, Chloe, and her stepfather is happy. But as the war taints their sheltered world, Bette begins to realize life is sometimes cruel, and not everyone has the happiness she does. She finishes school and briefly becomes involved in anti-Nazi espionage until she marries.

Haunted by a horrible memory from the war, and alone since his grown children moved out, Vietnam vet Charles Boatman returns to Vietnam after the war. Ada and her brother, Jon, follow their missing father to Vietnam. Their search for him tears them apart in ways they never could have guessed, and Vietnam finds its way in. Shifting between Charles' and Ada's points of view, their journeys become increasingly colorful and complex.