Soul Ranger
The Frog Hunter
Dear Soul Ranger Subscribers and Friends,
I am pleased to announce the release of my new book: The Frog Hunter: A Story About the Vietnam War, an Inkblot Test and a Girl.
It took me twenty-five years to finish the five-pound book, and twenty-five years to whittle it down to something you can comfortably hold in your hand and read. A true story, it chronicles a tumultuous three-year period in my life—before, during, and after Vietnam.
The story begins in the summer of 1968, and a perfect balmy night at the Scotchman Drive-In. At seventeen years of age, my life is good—cruising the circuit with the other hot cars in my cherry ’41 Ford pickup.
It was our Friday night ritual, and my best friend Port Tuley and I are looking for a date or a drag race, whichever comes first. While we munch on our hamburgers and drink our sloppy malts, we casually contemplate the war. Should we sign up or wait for the draft?
Nine months later I am an Airborne Ranger in Vietnam. Our five-man, long-range reconnaissance teams (LRRPs) run intelligence gathering missions deep into enemy territory in the mountains of the Central Highlands, crisscrossed with a vast network of NVA supply lines from the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
While in the VC’s backyard, anything can happen. Marinating in adrenaline, straining against the incessant tension and the nonstop threat of harm, I live in a state of overload, with the war assailing my mind like fifty thousand volts running through a twenty-amp wire.
We flew home one by one from the war on a commercial airliner—forty-eight hours from the battlefield to mom’s kitchen table. I took off my uniform and put on my blue jeans, but my mind and heart didn’t adjust so easily. I came home but remained at war, and I knew there was no road back to normal.
And then things get really crazy…
The book is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle version. You can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09K26D5
“The Frog Hunter” is the personal and honest account of
a U.S. Army Ranger trapped between deadly jungle warfare
and harsh criticism simmering on the home front. This
book, filled with gripping imagery, is truly a must read.
J.Kelly