Friday, December 01, 2006

CAAFlog book group

At Borders today, I saw a recently published book by Charles W. Henderson called Jungle Rules: A True Story of Marine Justice in Vietnam. Here's the publisher's synopsis:

A true story of murder, justice, and the military from the author of Marine Sniper, the Vietnam classic with more than a million copies in print.
In Vietnam, they're known as "Jungle Rules"- those by which the U.S. military tries to keep control, often allowing inconvenient facts and regulations to conveniently slip between the cracks. This is the battlefield Captain Terry O'Connor of the JAG Corps is stepping onto.

There's been a murder. After a long day on patrol, Private Celestine Anderson returned to base, only to come under fire from a group of racist white marines. He finally snapped, killing one of his tormentors-and now the inexperienced O'Connor must defend him. But the case pulls O'Connor into the heart of the Vietnam conflict, where bullets overrule books and death is the only judge of men.

About the Author: Charles Henderson is a veteran of more than 23 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, with a distinguished career spanning from Vietnam to the Gulf War, after which he retired as a Chief Warrant Officer.


I have some immediate suspicions about the book due to the synopsis's reference to "Captain Terry O'Connor of the JAG Corps." Of course it's possible that O'Connor was in the Army or Navy JAG Corps. But if he was a Devil Dog, the only Corps he was in was the Marine Corps. (Of course, it is also possible that the error was strictly the publisher's and doesn't reflect any such loose terminology in the book.) I guess the next time I'm at Borders, I'll thumb through it at least enough to determine which branch O'Connor served with.

Before I shell out $17.96 (Barnes & Noble member price) for the book or devote a much more precious asset -- time -- to reading it, it seems prudent to solicit a review. Have any of you read it?

--Dwight Sullivan

1 comment:

Dwight Sullivan said...

I was in Borders again today and looked at the book in sufficient detail to confirm that, yes, Capt O'Connor was a Marine. And the offending reference to "JAG Corps" is even on the inside flap of the book jacket.