Grunt's Minutia

It’s 1969 and Ruben Dann is dissatisfied with his lot. When he was drafted out of a dead-end job delivering furniture he hoped the army would teach him a useful trade. Instead his Advanced Individual Training assignment was 11 Bravo, the army’s alpha-numeric notation for the infantry—another dead-end job. Two months into his one year tour of duty in Vietnam, Ruben is an unmotivated twenty year old recruit, being herded around the battlefield by sergeants and officers, searching for an elusive enemy he doesn’t want to find, and counting the days until rotation. Author's Note: Grunt’s Minutia is a recreation of a specific time and place in minute detail. It may be of interest to historians, veterans and anyone who has an interest in the Vietnam War and/or what life was like for a conscripted infantry soldier in the latter half of that conflict. This is not a typical war novel—it's the Vietnam war unedited, not just the highlights. This is an unromanticized account, told from the perspective of a young, disillusioned infantry Pfc., and will be of little interest to those looking for action, excitement, extreme violence, uplifting messages, heroic or patriotic themes. —Jack Yaghubian Photographs, maps and illustrations throughout. Glossary of terms.