So Many Disappear: A Soldier's Year in Vietnam

December 1968. Specialist E4 Nathan Cobb, a Southern bread baker, arrives in Vietnam and is assigned to a company near Nha Trang, a safer base than most in Vietnam. But nowhere in Vietnam is safe. Nathan suffers from the relentless pressure of military rule and soon experiences the traumatic Tet offensive. To escape his excruciating daily existence, he constantly smokes pot with fellow soldiers and spends as much time as possible savoring the exotic lure of the Vietnamese landscape and culture. He makes friends with his Vietnamese co-workers. And Nathan falls in love with a highborn Vietnamese woman. As his friends are killed or driven mad by their inescapably surreal situation, Nathan's company is ordered to Phu Bai, the "Home of the Dead." His fanatic commander assigns Nathan brutal, mindless chores, tasks designed to eliminate the pot-heads in the camp. Nathan's relationship with his Vietnamese lover collapses. As his year "in Country" draws to an end, Nathan goes AWOL to visit his old base, Nha Trang. He finds it changed beyond recognition. Disturbing visions drive Nathan into the solace of opium dens. When he finally extricates himself and returns to Phu Bai, Nathan learns that his one remaining friend had been killed. Along with other misfits, Nathan is demoted and assigned to demeaning guard duty. Bereft, emotionally exhausted, Nathan struggles to survive till the day a lucky plane will take him back to "the World," to the North Carolina he loves, the place where he was born and raised.

About the Author :
Robert Lochlin Loch Walker, born and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, was drafted and sent to Vietnam in late 1968. When he returned to the States, he attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte until his GI Bill benefits ran out, after which he worked at a series of relatively menial jobs as he devoted himself to reading, writing, and living life the way he chose.Loch Walker was a thoughtful man with a gentle spirit and a wry sense of humor. After his return from Vietnam he lived with no car or telephone and loved to ride his bike, walk, visit with friends, backpack in the mountains, smoke his pipe (filled with legal and illegal substances), and above all read and write. He lived life with humility, warmth, acceptance and integrity.On the night of October 1, 1987, Loch was walking home from his job in the maintenance department of a local arts center when a group of young men accosted and shot him, leaving him to bleed to death on the corner of one of Charlotte's main streets. When friends entered his small, book-lined apartment the next day, they found on his desk two collections of poetry and the manuscript of a novel. The poetry was edited and published as a chapbook, Musings While Adrift, soon after his death. Two of his poems reflecting his time in Vietnam were merged and are now inscribed on the Vietnam Memorial in downtown Charlotte.This novel reflects Loch's sensibility with respect to the military, his fellow soldiers, Vietnam and the Vietnamese people. The manuscript needed major editing and the effort to accomplish that has taken over 30 years of episodic efforts. Its publication brings Loch's voice back to those who knew him and out to those who did not have that privilege.

Review :
"Though we served in different units and different locations, Nathan shared many experiences with me while I was in Vietnam in 1969. Anyone who has been in a wartime conflict will see events in this book that resonate deeply and change one's worldview forever. Those who have never lived through conditions which are pain-fully and truthfully presented in this book will take away a different sense of this part of history." Loran Mundy (Retired teacher, builder and artillery specialist) "This book is bloody good. A beautifully written and powerfully evocative war novel. I could not help but resonate with Nathan Cobb's feelings of dread and heightened awareness as his base came under mortar attack. These were the identical sensations I felt watching Russian tanks rolling to-wards my trench." -Geoffrey Storey (Infantry and Commando, [Colonial Boy, Anabasis, White Dragon]) "The story of Nathan Cobb's journey is a valuable contribution to Vietnam War literature and its military culture. The novel's vivid details capture a young soldier's searing reality as he faces fear and death, all the while trying to cope and somehow find solace, time-less themes experienced by soldiers for centuries. As a Vietnam veteran, I connected deeply with this compas-sionate, penetrating and intensely intimate human account. I felt that I was once again 'in Country', reliving every step alongside Nathan Cobb. James E. DiLisio (Vietnam Veteran, U.S. Marine Corps [Retired], Professor and University Vice Provost)