William K. Millar, Jr. '68
When I graduated from UNH I was told by the ROTC department that, as a German major, I could expect to be sent to Germany as a Military Intelligence officer. Neither I, nor anyone who knew me, could picture me as an infantry officer, but there I was, all 115 pounds of me as a platoon leader in the First Cavalry Division. On the plane trip over to Vietnam, I started writing a journal. The opening paragraphs of my book are actually what I wrote on the plane that night. I maintained the journal until the monsoon rains rendered the paper un-writeable.
In 1974, I was newly divorced, teaching at York High School, in York, Maine, and still feeling the effects of Vietnam. I started writing down my experiences on the backs of unused test papers I pulled from the trash. It was finally completed in 1978. By this time, I was remarried to Susan Collins '71. She was teaching at UNH and represented the Nursing Department on the Faculty Senate. One of her fellow senators was Don Murray. She asked him if he would be interested in reading my book, and so, he took the manuscript, still on the old tests and bound up in four term paper folders. About a week later, he called and asked me to come over to his office some afternoon when I was done teaching. Needless to say, I went with some trepidation.
After trading war stories, Don handed the manuscript to me and asked me what I was planning to do with it. I said I didn't know, and would probably just stash it somewhere. In typical Don Murray fashion, he graphically told me why I should try to publish it. I won't use his exact words, but they were from one infantryman to another. Last year, my eldest daughter decided she would take the manuscript to Lulu.com and make a book for me as a Christmas present, and so here it is.
http://unhmagazine.unh.edu/sp09/bookreviews.html
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