Chapter One

Review written by Bernie Weisz, Historian, Vietnam War. Aug. 11th, 2013 Pembroke Pines,Fl. USA Contact: BernWei1@aol.com Title of Review: "Chapter One; An Attempt To Defeat the Erroneous American Perception That Vietnam Vets are Drug Addicts and Crazed Baby Killers"There are times when a novel known as "historical fiction" can describe what actually happened in the past better than a straight memoir. When you refer to the experience of the American serviceman returning from the Vietnam War, the truth can be so painful and searing that it can only be palatable in a fictitious setting. There are veterans of that war that even today have a bitter taste in their mouths as to their treatment upon return. For many of these, "Chapter One" will speak volumes. Bob Staranowicz has come up with a fantastic novel that takes this myth head on and truly shows the reader the pain, despair, sorrow and remorse that both he and his fellow Veterans felt upon return. Although the story is for the most part fictitious, by learning Staronowicz's past one quickly realizes the author is using his protagonist, Victor Charles as a euphemism for the pain his very own Vietnam experience resulted in.A Doylestown, Pennsylvania resident for the last two decades, Staranowicz graduated from Northeast Catholic High School in 1966, the same year U.S. ground troops in Vietnam were first badly bloodied in the battle of the A Shau Valley. By 1968, the year of the Tet Offensive where the North Vietnamese decided to pull a country wide sneak attack on all South Vietnamese cities and provinces, he had been drafted. Staranowicz decided to join the Army, and in August 1968 he started basic training at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and then transferred to the Fort Monmouth New Jersey Electronics School. When Staranowicz finally made it to Vietnam, he arrived at the Army's Long Binh Post, where he received orders for the 101st Airborne Division, HQ - 501st Signal Group. His ultimate destination would be Camp Eagle which was near the Imperial City of Hue, the city that saw the most ferocious fighting during the Tet Offensive.As the reader will find out in "Chapter One," Staranowicz's protagonist Victor Charles follows a very similar path. Doomed to kill and watch others both friend and foe alike die, Staranowicz brings the reader on an engrossing and vicarious one year tour of duty in the very dangerous mountains and firebases of Vietnam. What truly makes this book thrilling is that while doing this, the author simultaneously brings us to present day, where in the novel Victor Charles is writing a second book entitled "Chapter One" in an attempt to help other Vietnam Veterans. While his first book was a smashing success that brought fame and fortune, Charles experiences writer's block, nightmares, violent flashbacks and alcoholism that stall his sequel's conclusion. Just like in the novel where Victor Charles was writing his sequel to help other Vietnam Veterans whereupon in reality it was he who really needed the help, by the very nature of Staranowiz's composition it is the author who derives the ultimate cathartic relief.Regardless, Staranowicz elucidates his pain in explaining his first literary offering; It was written to expel the frustration of war, or "Conflict," as the political world called it, which had little cause and no truly defined winner. It was written with highly inspirational emotions-love of family and friends, hatred of losing more than 58,000 young lives and the indifference toward the protesters of that war." One of the novel's purposes Staronowicz uses "Chapter One" for is to inform all of the qualities of the returning Vietnam Veteran and remove the false stigma of soldiers being presupposed drug addicts and baby killers the media had unrighteously imposed on the American people. Between William Calley and the 1968 My Lai Massacre and a small amount of Veterans that admitted to heroin use in the last two years of the war, a complete false stereotype had been unfairly hoisted on returning Vets. Staronowicz mentions how soldiers in Vietnam were learning about protests and airport incidents going on at home because of opposition to the war. In some airports Veterans fresh off of their "freedom bird" were being spat upon, called psychotic baby killers or worse.One poignant element of this novel is Staranowicz's attempt to make sense of this war, his lament at what transpired in Southeast Asia in what started as a noble cause and ultimate disgust at the end result. Staranowicz asserts; "We were sent to a world where our enemy was unknown and unrecognizable. He could be sitting next to us on a work detail or he could be the traffic policeman in the center of Hue. We only knew him as Charlie. We all went, black, white, Navy, Army, etc. to arrest the continuing expansion of Communism and to train the people of South Vietnam so that their Army could stand on its own against the NVA and we could go home. We did not accomplish that which we set out to achieve. America had lost more than 58,000 young lives in the battle for Vietnam. We came back. No, not to a hero's welcome, but to empty airports, bus and train stations. In some places, we were spat upon, greeted as baby killers and arsonists. We were America's best, but we were treated as lowly criminals and outcasts."Finally, in "Chapter One" Bob Staranowicz makes a sad commentary of how Americans who never fought prejudged the returning Vietnam Veteran. Although most Americans who fought in Vietnam volunteered with patriotic fervor, Staranowicz declares that despite the early 1960's American Cold War attitude and accompanying fear of the spread of Communism via the "Domino Theory," what was once a gung ho war by its end became a crime and its veterans were the criminals. A major resentment is voiced when the author compares the returning Vietnam Veteran with those of the present day Desert Wars. Staranowicz mentions that why Iraqi War Veterans were greeted upon return with flags, flowers, balloons and parades, why wasn't it like that for Vietnam Veterans? In a memorable anecdote, the author sums up the bottom line of this novel; "I wanted to tell the story not seen in any books or movies about that little S-shaped country 10,000 miles away where 58,000 men and women left their spirits and souls, obeying the orders of their country and dying because of it." Bob Staranowicz has certainly accomplished this and much more in this memorable tale of a war America prefers to forget.