This is a story of one junior officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and how he came of age during a two-year tour of duty, one at Fort Belvoir, Virginia and one in Vietnam. Most Vietnam books, and there are many, are about the policy debacles made by the military and the U.S. government or about the nitty gritty of combat. This one is different. It describes the personal journey of a young lieutenant and his unit, and how the military impacted their lives before the all-voluntary Army. In Vietnam, the Corps of Engineers mission was to build infrastructure, not to kill people. Like MASH, the story of the medical Corps in Korea, this is the story of the Corps of Engineers in the homeland and in Vietnam, told through the eyes of a young lieutenant.

So there are two stories, one a personal journey of growth tempered by stress, excitement, passion, fear,  heartache, and humor. The second a story of the Corps military mission stateside and the nation-building mission in South Vietnam.