Traces Of A Lost War

During the height of the Vietnam War, the Army resorted to a bait-and-switch scam that recruited thousands of unsuspecting college graduates into its combat ranks. This is the story of two of its victims who join to become signal officers but must serve in the infantry, a fate that turns their beloved diplomas into one-way tickets to the jungles of Vietnam. Finding uncertainty in a certain war, they manage to avoid the most dreadful duty, point man in an infantry company. Eliot re-ups to become a journalist and write military propaganda in Saigon, while Nello lucks-out and becomes a company clerk in base camp. But when Nello eventually looks into the mysterious eyes of a point man, he must follow them to the field. He goes from one combat duty to the next only to discover that his successors tragically die in his place. This is a story about survival, not only on the battlefield, but in the mind of a soldier caught between his search for identity and his allegiance to men fighting to stay alive.