Acclaimed journalist Robert Timberg’s extraordinary, long-awaited memoir of his struggle to reclaim his life and find his calling after being severely burned as a young Marine lieutenant in VietnamIn January 1967, Robert Timberg was a short-timer, counting down the days until his combat tour ended. He had thirteen days to go before he got to go back home to his wife in Southern California. That homecoming would eventually happen, but not in thirteen days, and not a...

From the Naval Academy to the POW camps of Vietnam to Capitol Hill and possibly to the White House -- one of America's most remarkable menIn 1998, at the dedication of the National Prisoner of War Museum in Andersonville, Georgia, former Attorney General Griffin Bell, a Democrat, introduced Senator John McCain, the featured speaker and a Republican, with these words: "We often hear people now say, where are our heroes, where have all our heroes gone? Well, Senator M...

Robert Timberg weaves together the lives of Annapolis graduates John McCain, James Webb, Oliver North, Robert McFarlane, and John Poindexter to reveal how the Vietnam War continues to haunt America. Casting all five men as metaphors for a legion of well-meaning if ill-starred warriors, Timberg probes the fault line between those who fought the war and those who used money, wit, and connections to avoid battle. A riveting tale that illuminates the flip side of the fabled Vietnam generation:...

From the author of the critically acclaimed book The Nightingale Song comes an evocative and personal portrait of America during the time between the Good War and Vietnam.Reviving the powerful themes of courage, manhood, and loss, Robert Timberg returns for his second book with a strikingly personal exploration of the generation that split along the fault line known as Vietnam.Using as a backdrop the New York City sandlot football team he played fo...