Just out of high school, Bubba was drifting from one scrape with the law after another. Red was too poor for college and too little for a football scholarship. John was in love with Samantha, but 86 proof was proving to be a third wheel. At the suggestion of a friend, the trio joins the Marines to pull their acts together.

Meanwhile, 9,000 miles away, an enemy waits in the jungles of Vietnam.

The 1960s were a decade of rebellion, fantastic music, drugs, and free sex. The pill had unburdened the ladies from the age-old bugaboo of getting pregnant. Good girls were giving the stuff away like it was going out of style. Marijuana was on every street corner. Bob Dylan became the voice of the Hippie Generation. Janis Joplin lived and sang Piece of My Heart.

Out of this menagerie, the three young hell-raisers from South Knoxville, Tennessee have a rendezvous with destiny. Follow the lives of Red, John, and Bubba as they navigate love, war, and history. Will they come home to the embrace of loved ones or in a flag-draped metal coffin?

"Larry Henry is an ex-Marine known for telling it like it is or was. . . . Interesting reading about Knoxville, Vietnam, and American politics."

Dean Stone, Editor, Maryville Daily Times.