Well, okay, it’s fiction, or so claims the author of a new “novel” about a handful of senior Marine Corps staff officers plotting to round up a herd of ceramic elephants (sometimes called “big, ugly, fragile elephants – or, “buffies”) and extract them from Vietnam. The Vietnam War, like all wars, has its lighter side, as the new book proves.
Written by Armed Forces News senior associate editor Fred Edwards, The Buffie Brigade is a rollicking account of the trials and tribulations of these co-corps-conspirators who bend the rules and work the system but ultimately see their project fail, well, to a degree anyway. The surprising outcome is ironic and, well, hilarious.
One wonders if Lt. Col. Edwards, USMC-Ret., might be drawing more from personal experience than crafting a work of pure fiction. (I have my suspicions, and frankly I’d be disappointed if that weren’t the case.)
Edwards, who also authored the highly-regarded nonfiction The Bridges of Vietnam: From the Journals of a U.S. Marine Intelligence Officer, keeps the peppery dialog authentic and clever; no Marine could mistake the ward room patois, and for readers of the other armed services he mercifully provides a useful “terms and acronyms” section. This old Air Force reviewer really appreciated that.
On a personal note, I own one a Buffie. But I got it the old-fashioned way. I bought it from the BX, cash money, four decades ago. It’s survived several moves and currently stands guard in my garden in Virginia where the squirrels squat on its shiny white saddle and munch peanuts they rob from the bird feeder. It had a twin sister but she was broken when one of my toddler sons ran into her with his tricycle 25 or so years ago.
To purchase The Buffie Brigade, call Infinity Publishing toll-free at
1-877-289-2665 and order a copy for $10.95 plus shipping. Or you can go
either to www.amazon.com or www.buybooksontheweb.com and key “Buffie
Brigade” into the search box.
Don Mace
Publisher
Armed Forces News
