Arthur Wiknik Jr.

Arthur Wiknik's story touched upon many of the memories I have about my own tour as a grunt in Vietnam. I do recall that after Basic Training and AIT, many of us sought out additional training in order to delay our deployment to Vietnam; Arthur coins it best, "...maybe the war will be over after all this training and I won't have to go." Many of us draftees signed up for Leadership Preparation Course, NCO (Shake 'n Bake) training, and jump school to shorten the potential time left in the military. However, the war hadn't ended and our destiny was fulfilled.

Nam Sense takes the reader through many adventures during Arthur's year long tour with the 101st Airborne. Hamburger Hill, A Shau Valley, Firebase Riptide, et al, were very dangerous places, grunts counted on the seasoned veterans to get them through patrols; most were only Spec 4's and PFC's, but they knew their stuff. When Cherry Officers arrived, not all were like Aurthur's leader, who insisted on leading them all to glory to make a name for himself and catapult his career. Nam Sense or "Intuition" saved many lives during the war - so did common sense. When officers chose to ignore this wisdom, troops suffered the consequences, some were killed. In his story, Arthur continues to be punished because of his continued criticism of the new Lieutenant, who does not want to pay attention to "Nam Sense" and instead pushes his men for his individual glory. Fragging is also touched upon and it is easy to see why somebody would want to kill their superior. During my tour,I had similar experiences with Cherry Second Lieutenants; one was seriously wounded after a month and the other "saw the light" after a few days and became more of a team member. However, most officers I served with respected the grunts and listened to their opinions.

As a Cherry NCO arriving in Vietnam, Arthur knew better than to push his rank and worked hard to be accepted by his fellow soldiers. Part of his strategy was to get businesses in the U.S. to send samples of most anything edible sent to Vietnam to share with his men. They also learned to respect him because of his views and persistence in standing up for the men.

Arthur does have a knack for "ghosting", which he explains in the book. The time quickly adds up and reduces the amount of time he had to spend in the bush on patrol. Mr. Wiknik does have a sense of humor and I found myself laughing out loud on many occasions. Nam Sense is worth reading and offers the reader an opportunity to witness the insane things that occur in war.

John Podlaski, author
Cherries - A Vietnam War Novel… (meer)

This is an amazing volume. Wiknik claims to have been a bit of a rebel and trouble maker during his Vietnam service. He entered Vietnam as a Sergeant and was immediately resented by NCO's who had worked there way into that position. His approach to leadership was to make sure he & his men would leave Vietnam alive and uninjured. With an attitude like this, he was constantly banging head with officers who were gung ho on obtaining high body counts and personal glory. As with many of these Vietnam memoirs, we read of the absurdity and stupidity of this particular war, not to mention the almost inhuman conditions these men fought under. Unlike some vets, Wiknik saw little drug use in either the rear or in the field with alcohol being the preferred escape from the battlefield. Wiknik is a wonderful writer whose prose made this a book I could not put down.… (meer)