The Killing Zone: My Life in the Vietnam War (ISBN 0393310892)

For veterans ... not for normal folk:
I bought this book because it had a cumulative 4.5 start rating on amazon. I did read this book cover to cover but was disappointed by the writing style. The point to note is that this book is written by a soldier, not a writer and this comes across quite clearly in every sentence thats written in this book. Sentences are fragmented, they end abruptly and you can tell that the writer is trying to convey his emotions by using his own type of linguistics. This may be appreciated by some war veterans who can closely relate to the experience in Vietnam (or other wars). However for a reader like myself that does not relate to being in an army it was hard to really appreciate. The events in the book are quite dramatic and there is a lot of action. By the end of the book one feels that a better author would have done all that transpired in Vietnam much more justice. Overall ... packed with material but not a fun read.

Written as Remembered. That's Important:
Like most who have written books about their Vietnam experience, I believe Mr. Downs has told his story as he remembered it. There are several books out about the war where it's obvious that the authors are trying their best to paint a picture he or she thinks movie producers want to produce. Mr. Downs was very kind to the children when he described them giving the GIs the finger. Explaining that they were just greeting the soldiers as they had seen the GIs do to each other. That could be true in his case, but children are not dumb, they learn quickly. In aviation, we, too, had to learn quickly. Several air crews left this world after a child threw a grenade into the aircraft. This happened to me twice. I was lucky. Anyway, this is an interesting read and I'll describe it as "lucid and compelling". It's unlike my book, "Kill Me If You Can, You SOB". It is by no means a rah-rah account of the war or the sociopaths who did their best to perpetuate it. Don't rush off to buy it. Most people hate it, especially Vietnam veterans.

This was a terrific read !:
If you're interested in getting an idea of what a typical army officer's life in an operational area was like ..... read this book. The descriptions by the author are incredible especially those of his own experiences. His injuries and efforts to overcome adversity are edifying. THIS is an interesting book

Really interesting book.:
This book was really good, it started a little slow, and it climaxed really fast. It was like I started reading it and then all of a sudden it was over. It was definitly a good book though, all kinds of cool little stories.

Most authentic view of war from the ground:
If Bob Mason's Chickenhawk was the best book about Vietnam from a chopper pilot's seat, then Fred Downs' memoir is one of the best from the grunts' point of view. Downs' story starts quietly and build slowly, in his dry, almost laconic style, to an abrupt and horrifying conclusion. The sheer awfulness and horror of life in the jungle, humpin' the boonies, and taking nameless ridges in fierce firefights at such awful costs (and then giving them back to the enemy) becomes slowly evident in Fred Downs' matter-of-fact descriptions. One scene in particular sticks in my mind - how Downs and his men dig up a fresh grave looking for a possible weapons cache. They find nothing but a rotting corpse, so simply throw the shovels at a couple of wailing Vietnamese women to finish the job of re-burying the body. On the way out of the graveyard, they pull some onions to "spice up their C rations." Downs says he thought briefly about how hardened he had become, but the thought left him quickly. Wounded only slightly three times, earning three purple hearts, Downs begins to think he's got a charmed life. But the fourth ribbon is not so easily earned, as, not quite halfway through his tour, Downs triggers a bouncing betty land mine and this time loses an arm and is horrifically wounded. His war is suddenly over, and ends this, his first Vietnam story. Perhaps almost as moving as the original story is the new Afterword Downs penned for the 2006 edition of The Killing Zone (originally published in 1978). His stories of the fates of his men and comrades - of lives tragically cut short or forever changed by crippling and disfiguring wounds - are enough to make you weep. I am not surprised that this book has stayed in print continuously for nearly 30 years and is now on the reading list at West Point. It needs to be read. There are lessons to be learned in its pages. - Tim Bazzett, author of Soldier Boy: At Play in the ASA