The Frog Hunter

Book excerpt: When the plane full of young recruits landed in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, the stewardess stood at the cabin door and cried. It seemed like a bad omen.The Frog Hunter: A Story about the Vietnam War, an Inkblot Test and a Girl, is a memoir that reads stranger than fiction. The author takes his readers on a fascinating, often humorous, and emotionally moving journey from deadly Ranger missions in Vietnam, to betrayal by his superior officers at Fort Ord, to the inside of an Army psychiatric ward.With a chaotic mind, trying to make sense of the war, Stamper is in a desperate search for truth. He turns to the hippie culture, attracted by their message of peace and enlightenment.Unexpectedly, he meets a beautiful girl who becomes the love of his life. He wants normalcy; he wants the girl, and he wants a future. But every bit of happiness that life offers him is threatened by a war that ravages his mind and heart. It has taken everything from him-his friends, his sanity, and his peace. He can't let it take her too, and he must keep it from her at all costs. Written in powerful prose, the story reveals how war wounds the mind and soul. But hope emerges, kindled within the tangled aftermath of trauma and loss.