Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Rio de los Brazos de Dios
Posts: 3876

Friendly Fire by C.D.B. Bryan

This is the true story of an Iowa couple (the Mullens, Gene and Peg) whose son was killed in Vietnam by friendly artillery fire. The book centers around the reaction of the couple to this tragic news and to the awful conglomeration of lies and inept excuses that came from all branches of the US government about what happened that caused their son to be killed and whose fault it was and what was going to be done about it. It can hardly be called a comedy of errors because there is not even a chuckle in the entire book. From page one to page four hundred and thirty-six the reader is immersed in the misery and bewildered ignorance of an individual citizen trying too get information from the government about what happened to their son and why he was killed by American artillery fire. Peg and Gene start out as a team to sweat information from the army from privates to Generals, from the commander of the Artillery detachment that killed their son, from the forward observer who called in the targeting coordinates for the round that killed their son. Just to find out the names of these individuals took them over a year but they did not stop. Finding the reason why their son was killed and isolating the person at fault became an obsession with the Mullens.

They did finally find out how their son was killed. They did finally locate the team who fed the wrong data to the field artillery piece but they were so mentally exhausted and emotionally spent at the end of their long search that they did not push any action any further.

This is an old book. It was originally published in May 1976. It is my habit to let books age for a few years before I read them. I can’t even say that I enjoyed reading this book. The book attacked some of my sacred cows—and rightly so. It made me uncomfortable to learn that some of the people the Mullens talked to lied to them and tried to keep them from finding out what really happened, but I can’t say that I was in lock step with the Mullens in their reaction to their son’s death nor can I say that I should not have been. After I read the book I felt a little guilty ---I don’t know why.

__________________

[Ignore Sig]

oxsan


Don't kick until yer spurred.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: The Bottom of the Toyem Pole
Posts: 9453

Sounds kind of like that Denzel Washington movie where he was responsible for friendly fire. Actually, it sounds a hell of a lot different, but still.

Was this book a "hard" read, or did the pages slide by?

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Rio de los Brazos de Dios
Posts: 3876

The pages slid by Nute. I read the book in a little over one day. Bryan did a good writing job on it and there was a pull to see what was going to happen next---what the Mullens were going to find out next. But the book was not an enjoyable read because I was ashamed of what stance the government took and I was ashamed of the Mullens for some of the things they said and felt and I had the constant feeling that all of the characters were screwing up. No one kissed the horse and rode off into the sunset.

__________________

[Ignore Sig]

oxsan


Don't kick until yer spurred.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: The Bottom of the Toyem Pole
Posts: 9453

Understandable on all accounts.

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged

Registered: Mar 2004
Location:
Posts: 46

I never got around to this book, although I heard about it when they made TV movie out of it -- with Carol Burnett playing the mom, of all people. I remember her staring down at her son's headstone after she'd gotten all her answers, which had essentially taken the wind out of her sails for all time, although the chances are good they Hollywood-ised it to make it hold together more neatly than in real life.

The headstone said, "DARED TO RIPPLE MY POND."

Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged