Dear Gang, letters home from a combat photographer with the 1st Air Cav. in Vietnam.

Gary Vogt has wanted to turn his letters, photographs and current thoughts of the year he spent in Vietnam as a combat photographer with the 1st Air Cav. into a book since he came into possession of every letter he sent home from Vietnam to family and friends back home in Connecticut shortly after his parents passed away. There were over three hundred letters, nearly one for every day he spent in-country. The letters create a narrative of what day to day life on the front lines of Vietnam was like. He describes going on "search and destroy" missions where scores of the enemy are killed then returning to his home base where acts of kindness from his fellow soldiers toward the local villagers is a daily occurrence. This book is told from the perspective of the common soldier, surviving and marking off each day until you are "short," when your year is almost up and the time to go home is close.

This book is a worthy companion to the letters home from Civil War soldiers so brilliantly documented in Ken Burn's award winning documentaries. It shows the boredom, fear, struggle and longing for home of the American soldier in Vietnam.