Book Review: The Mailman Went UA (A Vietnam Memoir)

The year 2025 will see a lot of retrospective looks at the Vietnam War, as the United States' involvement began in 1965 (or 1955, depending on who you ask) and officially ended with the 1975 Fall of Saigon. The best retrospectives anyone could possibly read are the no-holds-barred accounts of the war from those who were there, on the ground, doing the job. And few Vietnam memoirs are as poignant and honest as David Mulldune's "The Mailman Went UA."
 
David Mulldune celebrated his 19th birthday in South Vietnam. His presence during his May 1968 to June 1969 tour was ambushes, snipers, and a steady stream of patrols in the bush. His memory is filled with resentment toward the rear-echelon POGs, illicit drug use, tunnel rats, booby traps, Viet Cong, the clap and pretty much anything else you always suspected to find in Vietnam, but not many books ever talk about. You would be hard-pressed to hear Ken Burns talk about helicopters decapitating troops or Marines fighting with the enemy.  

To be clear, Mulldune's remembrances are those of the 19-year-old Marine who still speaks with a clear, eloquent voice. It's obvious that he means no disrespect to anyone; not his fellow Marines and certainly not the Marine Corps. He writes with extreme honesty in the hopes that the reader will be able to place themselves in the boots of a teenage grunt and see and feel that world the way he did; something his writing is able to do with remarkable effect. 

The author says it better than any reviewer possibly could:

"People who have written books on war or made movies about war tend to do so in demonstrating honor, glory, sacrifice (for the good), pride, patriotism, etc., and they are quite persuasive and eloquent. I have read Tim O'Brien's "If I Die in a Combat Zone" and Phil Caputo's "Rumor of War," and right away, they, along with some other writers, strike me as cerebral, whereas my story is considerably more visceral. Tim and Phil are educated, intellectual authors, and they use their words like chess pieces. They are at home at an elite level where I do not fit. I was a high school dropout, and my words are more like grenades. They are crude, but I believe they are equally effective. I feel like I am an observer of Tim's and Phil's writings (and others'). Still, my objective is to make readers feel that they are present in a story that is horrific, arbitrary, tragic, and boring, that is punctuated by the dread that their next breath could be their last. 

The reality is that the number one goal in war is to stay alive, and that the number two goal is to kill and destroy, all the while not only watching your own back but also for your fellow Marines as well. My book is not so much about the Vietnam War, but about the experiences, horror, and tragedy of war, based on my firsthand experience, so that others will see the futility of it, unless there is absolutely no other way. I am hoping that what I have written will be the next best thing to actually being there. I hope it will give a taste of what it is like to go through it, and I hope (naively?) it will change the way some people look at war as a viable solution. This goal is why I wrote my manuscript the way that I did. I want people to see it from the less privileged viewpoint and get a taste of real war rather than a Hollywood version."

The Mailman Went UA (A Vietnam Memoir) by David W. Mulldune is available now on Amazon Kindle and in Paperback starting at $7.99.