MWSA Review

LTC Mark Mayerstein gives the reader a realistic and historical look back at his unit and his own personal experiences during the Vietnam War. His memoir is written in a comfortable style which allows the reader to become a virtual participant in what he faced when he was much younger.

Lots of emotions are shared as he reflects on friends he lost and battles he was a participant in. This is definitely a personal journey through some very turbulent times in our nation's military history. The book is well worth reading and sharing with military veterans so they can grasp what others have done and what sacrifices were made.

I enjoyed and felt it has something special to offer those who love to read the military genre. History and emotion told from the heart!

Review by Bill McDonald (April 2019)

Author's Synopsis

 Too Young to Die is a true personal story about a very close friendship that developed in the midst of the love, loyalty, sacrifice, horror, deceit, greed, and governmental excess that was the Vietnam War. It is an autobiographical sketch of one very unlikely young Jewish man, bonded to a man who was 10 years his senior by their partnership as a sniper team. In a very introspective, transparent, and often humorous way, the author recounts their harrowing experiences on dangerous missions throughout the theater of war in Vietnam and Laos. They were essentially outsiders in the 5th Special Forces unit to which they were assigned. Nonetheless they tried to honor themselves and their country by doing their duty despite the dangerous and uncomfortable wartime jungle environment with which they coped. This difficulty was eclipsed only by the military administrative incompetence that seemed to work to facilitate their demise before they even started. But more importantly, it is also the story about the author’s survivor’s grief and the guilt he bore in the aftermath of that ill-fated war that cost the lives of millions of people; his cherished partner being one of them. It was a war, like any other war, that produced yet another generation of military men and women who will forever be haunted and tormented by the very horrors they so courageously survived.

ISBN/ASIN: 9781728923833
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle
Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography
Number of Pages: 295