Having flunked out of college in the fall of 1965, the author enlisted in the U.S. Army. After basic training he was assigned to Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia, an institution dedicated to the manufacture of the commodity the wartime army most quickly expends—rifle platoon leaders.

In June of 1968, he found himself leading a rifle platoon in D Company 2/5th, First Cavalry Division. Quang Tri Cadence draws upon the original maps used in Vietnam and upon the battalion radio logs which were recently declassified at the time of writing. Life in a rifle platoon is presented at the boot level with all its grit, bewilderment, fatigue and fear. This book is not about what the pentagon is pleased to call "violence processing"; this book is about ordinary events in strange places; it is about being "in the field" and coming home. The author's experiences at Kent State University during the shootings in May of 1970 are also recounted.