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This book recounts the experiences of the young Americans who fought in Vietnam and of families who grieved those who did not return. By 1969 nearly half of the junior enlisted men who died in Vietnam were draftees. Their median age was twenty-one--among the non-draftees it was only twenty. The book describes the "baby boomers" growing up in the 1950s, why they went into the military, what they thought of the war, and what it was like to serve in "Nam"--and to come home. With a rich narrative of the Battle for "Hamburger Hill," and through substantial interviews with those who served, the book depicts the cruelty of this war and its quiet acts of courage.