The Disillusioned: Synopsis for the Novel and Screenplay

An old American soldier from the Viet Nam War is flying into Hanoi.  His Vietnamese wife has recently died and he is returning in search of her sister.  As the plane begins its approach, he scans the countryside of endless green from the window.  His mind drifts into memories as the stories begin.

Shacks on the Han River in Da Nang 

As the war in Vietnam draws down in 1975, the lives of an American GI, CAPT. EDWARD WINSLOW, and a troubled North Vietnamese soldier, CHANH, converge during the evacuation and fall of Da Nang.  The soldier from the North has endured immeasurable hardship during the previous ten years, many described in flashbacks, much of it through a beautiful countryside before the destruction caused by US bombing.  There have been horrendous battles.  His girl back home, HOA, is probably gone. 

The GI is ‘stuck’ in Viet Nam.  It’s become his home, and he’s involved with a girl from the North, LIEN, who works the bars.  At this point he is an adviser to the South Vietnamese military.  They all still fight, but the cause is fading….looking bleak.  Refugees from cities north of Da Nang fill the highways leading into the city.  Chaos reigns, as no one seems to be in charge.  The Americans begin an evacuation to the south of all who can board the last aircraft, ship, or road vehicle.  World Airways flies in for a last flight south to Saigon and barely makes it off the ramp. The last attempts from the air are made from the Marble Mountain airfield.  The overflowing barges from the river in town have left for ships in the South China Sea.   The last stragglers are swimming toward the ships from My Khe Beach.

Fields in the vicinity of the A Shau Valley

Amid the confusion the American soldier tries to arrange transport out for his ‘Vietnamese family.  He is abandoned and captured by the North Vietnamese Army.  A younger officer, his superior MAJOR BARNS, a helicopter pilot, fills in arranging what he can.  Most Vietnamese personnel of the Americans are left to their own devices.  There’s no other choice.   The Major doesn’t leave.  He manages to crank up his old Huey after Da Nang has fallen.  He’ll fly to Saigon, but scours the countryside to the south looking for his friend Winslow, and finds him.

USO and Red Cross Viet Nam volunteers

In present day Hanoi, Edward Winslow ties up with a friend from the US State Dept. who now works at the US Embassy.  He eventually finds the sister and they begin to talk of the past, each so differently.   They meet a few times in the countryside, then in Hanoi and gradually develop a friendship while digging into their pasts during the war.  They discover things unknown.

Viet Nam is peaceful and happiness appears to be a distant possibility.

The Embedded Ones: Synopsis for the Novel & Screenplay

Private Bill Collins, the protagonist of the book 'The Girl from Tam Hiep’ is old now.  The Viet Nam war is a distant memory.  As the main character in ‘The Embedded Ones’  he’s back in the field with the US Army for a few tours as an embedded reporter in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Survivors from  night raid...Yaka China, Afghanistan

He befriends a number of younger reporters most of whom are more experienced on the job than he but have only the faintest knowledge of the war in Viet Nam which is always in the back of his mind.  The comparison between then and now often surfaces in his articles.

Iraqi girl...Medical outreach

First and foremost, it’s  the story of reporters covering what passes for war in the first part of the 21^st century.  Many of these reporters are interesting young women who more than hold their own with the men. 

Loading up after a hard night raid

Reporter Collins roams the whole of both Iraq and Afghanistan with various military units, sometimes on helicopters, sometimes across the landscape in Humvees or MR APs usually in the company of his young reporter friends.

Morning break in the Hindi Kush

Between embeds he makes a number of trips back to Viet Nam where he is no stranger having returned many times over the previous twenty years.  On a number of these trips he is accompanied by one or all of his young friends.

On the fringe of Ho Chi Minh City

This is after all the story of an era of US history in countries it never understands and never will if history proves correct.

Old Soldiers on parade - Ho Chi Minh City

From Baghdad to Kirkuk and Yusufiyah , from Kabul  and Kandahar to the high peaks of the Hindu Kush above the Pech Valley, from Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang to Hue and Ke Sanh we travel with Bill Collins and his friends through the minefields of current wars and the memories of a past one.

The Girl from Tam Hiep: Synopsis for the Novel & Screenplay

This book is meant to be a ‘slice of life’ in that time during the American war in Viet Nam in the late Sixties.  It is not a memoir.  I think of it as ‘living’ in a particular time. The protagonist, Private Bill Collins, is something like me but not really….maybe a fantasized version of myself…and other people too.

Red Beach in Da Nang where the Marines landed in 1965

 The original title, ‘My Friend Me’ is an expression used frequently by locals when speaking with GIs during that era but 'The Girl from Tam Hiep' took over. 

With an old VC in the fields outside of Da Nang 1993

It’s the story of a farm kid from the States out in the world for the first time and a young girl from Cambodia who lives in Viet Nam and works for the American GIs. 

A girl from Tam Hiep

It’s the story of the beginnings of their stumbling relationship and where it goes; ultimately to present day Viet Nam.

Downtown Tam Hiep

It’s also the story of other American boys from varied  backgrounds and their relationship with the powers that be that control army life, the Green Machine, the US Army.  And  their relationships with other GIs and the Vietnamese ….especially the girls.

Another girl from Tam Hiep

In many ways it explores the relationship of two peoples who have great differences in background  but are very much alike at the human level. 

The author 

There is a larger story of a rich and powerful country enveloping a small, poor and distant one that is very unlike itself.

The boys from the Company

From the Long Binh Ammo Dump to the village of Tam Hiep, from Bien Hoa to Saigon, from Da Nang and Hue to the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. the narrative follows US Army Private Bill Collins on his treck through the many and the quiet complexities of the Viet Nam War