John Akins joined the Marine Corps in 1967 because he was eligible for the draft and wanted to serve two years and get on with his life. He was just 19 years old. He did not expect to be an infantry point man slogging to the combat base at Khe Sanh during the 1968 Tet Offensive. The impact of violence and death changed his life.
With very little training, he was plunged into the Heart of Darkness, as Joseph Conrad called it. He found himself "beyond good and evil, beyond fear, beyond sex and death, in the dark interior of the human mind and soul. Detached, addicted to danger and violence." He learned to survive. Many were killed all around him, and he became a killer.
Going home was almost impossible. At times he wished he would stay on forever. "I'd fallen in love with the Vietnamese Goddess of War," he says in Nam Au Go Go. He got home without serious wounds, except for his mind. He worked at ordinary jobs but without satisfaction. Eventually, he made several trips back to Vietnam to visit the places where he had fought. "I was looking for my soul," he explains.
Also by John Akins
On The Way to Khe SanhContact
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