Paul Gardner

Paul Gardner’s account of his Vietnam experience comes courtesy of a detailed memory that lingered for years and then found its way onto paper and is now ready for you to experience. Once a Boy highlights the perils of a young American boy and what our government and military leaders expected of him.

The author wishes he could have reproduced the unforgettable sights, smells and sounds of this foreign country that only another Vietnam veteran could likely recall. Nonetheless, the memoir details the daily, life-threatening hazards of a war zone far away from home while dealing with the tragic toll suffered by young men at the hands of an enemy that our boys knew so little about.

Once a Boy is an experience which all Vietnam veterans can claim to have shared. The characters, time, place and stories will vary, but the haunting reality of a place called Vietnam and its impact on those individuals who fought there and the country they served still lives on.

The NVA west of Dak To were in a retreatand in regroup mode and desperate to do just that.