Book excerpt: A doctor's diary. A soldier's saga. Colonel J.P. Franklin, MC US Army, a man of honor, courage and commitment, has already passed through the crucible of two wars. Beginning as a teenaged Marine private in the Second World War, he goes on to command a platoon of self-propelled automatic weapons as a lieutenant in the Korean War. His greatest challenge, however, comes in a third war, Vietnam. World recognised for his expertise as a head and neck surgeon, he leaves the safe academic environment of Walter Reed Army Medical Centre to become a paratrooper, then takes his military and surgical skills to Vietnam. This is a detailed and often traumatic perspective of a controversial period in US history. It is a period that strains those ideals and loyalties considered sacred to the young men who matured into warriors during WW2 and the Korean War.