By Sharon Hall
The Nugget
Dahlonega resident Bruce Hoffman has read plenty of books on Vietnam. Many, perhaps most of them, he says, “are either all about combat, or crying-in-your-beer books.”
Hoffman had a different perspective on the war. He was a young (right out of high school), gung ho Marine, ready for action and stuck much of his time “in the rear with the beer,” he says. But recollections of those times, and the struggle and eventual success to get into combat, generated some good memories. Those memories are the basis of “And My Mother Danced With Chesty Puller.”
The unusual title comes from a family story Hoffman says he often heard as a child. “My dad served in the Pacific with Marine Corps Gen. Lewis “Chesty” Puller, the only Marine to earn the Navy Cross five times. My mother used to tell the story about being at a reunion with my dad, and Chesty Puller was there, sitting at a table. Marines would approach his table and shake his hand, but most just pointed him out to their wives or dates. My mother was never shy, and she told my dad the general was just sitting there and needed to get up and dance and enjoy himself and she was going to go ask him to dance, and before he could say anything, she did. I think later on, my dad told the story more often than my mom, but that story is one of the reasons I joined the Corps. I just always knew I would be a Marine like my dad.”
Hoffman joined the Corps soon after high school, right after the Gulf of Tonkin incident which propelled the U.S. into the Vietnam War. He then spent “three and a half years fighting to get into the war,” he says. “If you are a Marine, and there’s a war going on, that’s what you’re supposed to do.”
Most of this time was spent stateside or in Okinawa, with one tour of duty in the rear echelon in Vietnam before he was able to get into the action, finally serving as a gunner on a Huey helicopter flying Medevac and gunship missions during his last six months in service.
All the stories, from training to trooping through bars and brothels with his buddies, are there, along with stories of brave young men in combat. Amidst the recollections is the story of an adolescent’s growth into manhood, of a dedication to duty and the bonds of friendship formed by men in common cause.
“I just wanted to write all my old stories down before I forgot them,” Hoffman says.
He did have to do some research to refresh his memory about some of the details. He bought a collection of “Leatherneck” magazines on E-Bay, and accessed the Texas Tech Vietnam archives online, but he also “kind-of filled in the blanks a little bit with my own perceptions,” he says.
He was a little concerned how those perceptions would be received by other Marines who served at the same time as himself. He has since been vindicated, however, by reviews posted on the Amazon site where his book is available (www.amazon.com).
“I’ve really appreciated those reviews, especially since some were from folks I served with,” he says.
“The book aroused some strong memories of the times and the ‘men’ (most under 21) who humped the terrain, unloaded the bodies, resupplied their fellow Mariknes and that special group that came back to get you no matter how hot the LZ,” wrote one reviewer. “… a wonderful book that captures his Vietnam service and presents it in a very personal and real manner,” writes another; and “… an insightful and accurate portrayal,” writes a third.
“And My Mother Danced With Chesty Puller” is Hoffman’s first attempt at writing. He is currently involved in a second project, writing his memoir of 27 years with the Sheriff’s Office in Tampa, Fla.
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