A college dropout who was drafted to serve his country, Doug Warden was barely 20 years old when he arrived in Vietnam in 1967 as a private first class. He was 'green as a gourd' in the ways of warfare, but he stayed alive, listened and learned from his platoon leader and became a capable leader. He was first a rifleman, then a few days later, a Radio Telephone Operator for his platoon leader and then for his company commander. He gave up the relative safety of serving in the company command post to return to his platoon. He became a squad leader, platoon sergeant, and platoon leader in a remarkable short period of time. He would return to the states a staff sergeant with 5 months time in grade. Along the way, Doug became one of the most decorated soldiers in the 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry. He was awarded two Silver Stars for gallantry in action, the Bronze Star for Heroism, the Soldier's Medal, the Air Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, three Purple Hearts, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, and the Valorous Unit Award for his service in Vietnam. In addition, he earned the Combat Infantry Badge and the Parachutist Badge.

Sergeant Rock evolves from a native, baseball-playing, church-going Christian and skinny college kid to a well-trained killing machine in Vietnam. Leaving California to take part in the Tet Offensive in 1968, he finds the culture shock between the two overwhelming. Thrust into war and killing, he finds his approach to life and death must change quickly, but he holds fast to his beliefs. Though he saves others, his attitude toward killing and death changes for the worse, while his approach toward life improves. Sergeant Rock is a much better person for the choices he makes. In the course of a single Tet Offensive battle, his company loses all but 13 men, as 126 soldiers die in two hours. His faith increases when he meets his guardian angel during the battle. Sergeant Rock pushes his squad to their limits because he knows that death may lie just beyond the next bush. He may be only 20, but he thinks like an old veteran. With the body count in his mind, he wonders if he can ever be around normal people again. He experiences many horrors and watches friend after friend die as heroes. The hardships his squad must face, such as going without fresh water or clothes for 57 days, being shot down in a chopper, and just trying to stay alive are overwhelming. How much can our minds take before they crack? Sergeant Rock believes divine intervention is the only reason he is alive to tell his story.

After the outbreak of the Great War, boys as young as twelve were caught up in a national wave of patriotism and, in huge numbers, volunteered to serve their country. The press, recruiting offices and the Government all contributed to the enlistment of hundreds of thousands of under-age soldiers in both Britain and the Empire. On joining up, these lads falsified their ages, often aided by parents who believed their sons’ obvious youth would make overseas service unlikely. These boys frequently enlisted together, training for a year or more in the same battalions before they were sent abroad. Others joined up but were soon sent to units already fighting overseas and short of men: these lads might undergo as little as eight weeks’ training. Boys served in the bloodiest battles of the war, fighting at Ypres, the Somme and on Gallipoli. Many broke down under the strain and were returned home once parents supplied birth certificates proving their youth. Other lads fought on bravely and were even awarded medals for gallantry: Jack Pouchot won the Distinguished Conduct Medal aged just fifteen. Others became highly efficient officers, such as Acting Captain Philip Lister and Second Lieutenant Reginald Battersby, both of whom were commissioned at fifteen and fought in France. In this, the final update of his ground-breaking book, Richard van Emden reveals new hitherto unknown stories and adds many more unseen images. He also proves that far more boys enlisted in the British Army under-age than originally estimated, providing compelling evidence that as many as 400,000 served.

Reproduction of the original: Uncle Sam’s Boys in the Ranks by H. Irving Hancock

A combat veteran of virtual reality has to face real warfare on a planet where deadly radiation has forced the inhabitants to burrow deep underneath layers of gold to live out their lives. As tank warfare combines with virtual reality, the galaxy will never be the same.