Postmark: Mekong Delta

From jungle battlefields, where blood mixes with mud and survival is man's primary concern, come these tender, personal letters from a young Navy combat chaplain to his wife and three children. Never intended for publication, this precious correspondence offers unique insight into the lives - and deaths - of America's fighting men.

Though he speaks often of love for his family, of happy memories and the anticipated reunion, Chaplain Johnson also proffers a candid, realistic picture of a combat chaplain's duties; those taught him in survival training and those born out of a God-given love for his men.

Vividly pictured are the strange paradoxes that make up war - unnatural silence and man-made thunder, sudden tears and naked courage; one moment I'm chatting with the men; the next I'm sorrowfully covering their dead bodies.

Here is a depth of living almost rare to the rest of us in our comfortable existence. Life - fierce, intense, because it is life - and death, constantly present, brutal, final and daily. Out of jungle mud, sniper fire, confusion and shattered fragments of emotions, come these poignant letters - addresses to one precious little family but aimed at the hearts of all who read - bearing the postmark: Mekong Delta.