OAKLAND, Calif., April 19, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- During the Vietnam War, American soldiers fought enemies both foreign and domestic. It was the first war with racially integrated fighting units, and the tension of the Civil Rights movement at home traveled thousands of miles to infiltrate the base camps. Richard A. Henry's new novel, Short-Timer (now available through AuthorHouse), gives an authentic, gripping account of both the horrors of war and the animosity among soldiers.
Men of every ethnic background fought together on the battlefields of Vietnam. They bonded as one to fight the enemy during the height of danger, but back at the base, the realities of the '60s caught up with these displaced Americans. The social war raging in America brewed in the steamy tropics of southeastern Asia.
"It was a war where flashing the peace sign was perfectly acceptable while waving a clinched fist in the air, the black power symbol, was a court martial offense . . . Vietnam was a war where racism reared its ugly head on far too many an occasion, and in many different ways," Henry writes.
Short-Timer tells of the experiences of one black man at age 18 drafted from college to fight in the Marines. From boot camp to his tour, which is cut short because of President Nixon's Phase I pullout from Vietnam, Short-Timer describes the multiple battles he fights. He depicts the brutality of combat, the innocent souls caught in the fray and the tumultuous anger stirred by skin color.
A gutsy, authentic novel, Short-Timer uses an emotional and captivating storyline about the craziness of the Vietnam conflict and the racial strife of the 1960s to show that death is truly colorblind.
A native of New York City, Henry served in the U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam. He returned to New York City, where he completed his education and served as the coordinator of the New York City Board of Education alternative high schools. He published his first book of poetry titled Beyond the Skull in 1976. Several of his plays have been produced in shows performed in Central Park. His first novel, Of Days Gone By, was published in 1991. Henry currently resides in Oakland, Calif., where he is the president of Mediation First.
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