rapidfire
C Retiree Spotlight
apt. James Kirschke, USMC-Ret., is a retired Marine Corps infantry officer who was se- verely wounded in 1967 while leading his
rifle platoon near Da Nang, Vietnam. Now a professor of English at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, Kirschke has written four books. His autobiography, Not Going Home Alone (Ballantine Books, 2001), tells his Vietnam story. Kirschke is collaborating on con- verting the book to a screenplay. How did the book evolve? I actually left for Vietnam thinking that I’d have a story to tell if I returned, so I sent very detailed letters home and also kept comprehensive diaries. A great deal of research followed. What was your vi- sion? I wanted to ensure that the great deeds and heroic actions I witnessed would not be allowed to vanish. The same can be said for the screenplay.
Of those Vietnam films I’ve seen to date, none of them have come close to showing the kind of men I served with. They saved my life. Was it difficult to relive the injuries? Sur- prisingly, no. Having gone through it as I did, it was almost like writing about someone else. Quite honestly, the hardest part was dealing with the decisions I made that got people killed or wounded. Was it difficult to find a publisher? [That’s] a story in itself. My first submission in the early 1980s was rejected because “every- one wants to forget about Vietnam,” and by the early ’90s, “everything about Vietnam has been said.” What changed your luck? Some unlike- ly help came from a former company commander who generated added leverage from Soldier of Fortune magazine and put my manuscript in front of Ballantine Books. — Bill Deegan
Attention! Check out these military-related entertainment offerings.
TV SERIES SURVIVING THE CUT 2 (Discovery Channel, 2011) See what it takes to survive special operations training. Stu- dents this season will take on the special operations air regiment, where service- members test their skills at escape and evasion,
long-distance land naviga- tion, hand-to-hand combat, special weapons, and emer- gency medical response.
DVD WEAPONS RACES (Athena, 2011) Learn about the technology that drives military conflicts — from the muddy battlefields
28 MI L IT A R Y O FF ICE R S EP T EMBE R 2011
of World War I to today’s state-of-the-art fighter planes. This eight-part series originally was broadcast on Discovery’s Military Channel.
BOOK SILENT ENEMY (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2011) In this novel by Air Na-
tional Guard flight engineer Thomas Young, an Army sergeant major must evac- uate her students to a mili- tary medical base following a bomb attack. Before they can land, the crew realizes on-board bombs are set to explode as the plane reaches its destination.
MO PHOTO: BRIAR PHOTOGRAPHY
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