The Education of Corporal John Musgrave

April 12, 2021
In this sobering memoir, Musgrave (The Vietnam Years) revisits his tour in Vietnam and his advocacy against the war after surviving a grave injury. Musgrave grew up in 1950s Missouri and enlisted in the Marines at the age of 17. His first rude awakening came at boot camp, where recruits were verbally and physically abused. He endured the harsh treatment, and in 1967 was shipped off to Vietnam. There, Musgrave was forced to confront war’s messy realities, starting with killing the enemy. (“When I killed a man for the first time, I didn’t feel cool. I felt sick.”) Though he poignantly captures the rigors of jungle warfare, anyone remotely acquainted with Vietnam’s history may feel like they’ve heard this story before. After suffering a life-threatening chest wound, Musgrave returned stateside with a Purple Heart, but his status as a veteran made him a target for the anti-war movement. This exacerbated his own doubts about the war—prompted by the loss of lives he saw to friendly fire and the inferior firearms his squad was entrusted with—and led Musgrave to become a vocal opponent of the war. Musgrave is best at conveying life under fire, but despite a glowing foreword from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, his observations, while heartfelt, aren’t novel. It would be hard to mistake this for a new classic. Agent: Jay Mandel, WME.

September 1, 2021

Musgrave (Notes to the Man Who Shot Me) says that he fulfilled his childhood dream when he enlisted in the Marine Corps at age 17, in 1966. Here he offers a moving account of his deployment in Vietnam, where he miraculously survived a service-ending chest wound at Con Thien in 1967. He returned home to a United States torn by war protests and eventually became a spokesman for Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). With VVAW, he opposed the Nixon administration for using often-teenaged U.S. troops as cannon fodder and for killing and brutalizing millions of Vietnamese civilians and calling it "collateral damage." Musgrave's memoir has detailed chapters about his childhood in Independence, MO; boot camp and infantry training; his year in Vietnam as a "grunt" (infantryman); making the rough adjustment to college life in Kansas as a Vietnam veteran; his bouts of drinking brought on by physical pain and post-traumatic stress; and his still ongoing healing process. Since 2007, Musgrave has devoted himself to counseling veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. VERDICT This often-engrossing memoir might offer comfort to families of people serving in the armed forces and will also appeal to Vietnam War-era readers. See Gerald Nicosia's classic Home to War for an in-depth narrative of the VVAW.--Karl Helicher, formerly at Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2021
Outstanding memoir of service as a Marine rifleman and subsequent radicalization. Musgrave, a poet who appeared in numerous episodes of Ken Burns' documentary The Vietnam War, couldn't wait to sign up. "Every marine has three birthdays: the day his mother issued him onto this earth, the day the Marine Corps was formed--November 10, 1775--and the day he graduated from boot camp and was addressed for the first time as a marine," he writes. In 1966, when he joined the Corps, those birthdays were all too often cut short. He learned his lessons well, principally the one that teaches a Marine not just how to kill, but also to be willing to do so. His time in boot camp is a pointed reminder that Lee Ermey wasn't exaggerating in his performance in Full Metal Jacket: More than once, Musgrave found himself "in a complete world of shit for being the 'stupidest motherfucker on earth.' " Even so dubbed, he emerged a tough-as-nails private who served on long patrols and mounted ambushes, getting plenty of trigger time. At night, he recalls, he and his fellow Marines amused themselves by pondering how they would most and least like to die. After the war, Musgrave went to a conservative college in Kansas, but the misgivings began to build, especially after Kent State and, less well known, Jackson State. Musgrave volunteered to help the Black Panthers serve meals, then joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and was one of the fighters who tossed their medals over a fence erected around the Capitol. There's not a false note in this book, full of both pride and sorrow. It's just the retort to those who wonder why Vietnam vets can't just forget about the past and move on. His thoughtful response: "If you have to ask me why, then I'm not sure I can explain it to you." Smart and self-aware, Musgrave delivers one of the best recent books on America's experience in Vietnam.

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