“Di di mau. Vietnamese slang for ‘go quickly’” – p. 16.
Author Darren Walton was just a young adult when he was sent off to a year in the Vietnamese jungle. Now, decades later “Di Di Mau” is the story of his Vietnam experience. Growing up in liberal Marin County, California, Walton didn’t expect to return a hero for serving the United States Marines in the Vietnam War. However, what he came home to was his need to construct an image of himself that excluded his participation in the war. It wasn’t until Walton’s wife, Gina, began looking into veteran’s benefits that she uncovered a war citation issued to him, that he began to seek PTSD therapy, acknowledgement of his past, and ultimately this exceptional book.
As someone who grew up with a father who served, watching the History Channel and war movies was about the only way we ever glimpsed his past, and the years dedicated to the military. There’s a lot we don’t know, and likely never will, as it was hard on both our parents. But it is through brave, courageous, and honest recounting like that of Darren Walton with Michael Coffino that allow us insights into the environment, decisions, and atrocities witnessed.
More than fifty years later, there is a significant impact this war in particular has had on the United States. While there was certainly media, political, and peer backlash at the time, there has been immeasurable impact on the lives, both physically and mentally of American and Vietnamese alike. I especially liked Walton’s commitment to displaying some of these numerical facts in chapter 19, aptly titled “By the Numbers.”
Beyond the devastating, gruesome, and downright difficult experiences war has, particularly that of the Vietnam war, the stories, descriptions, and encounters Walton portrays within were still eye opening. I particularly enjoyed his descriptions of their encounters with the Rock Apes, the story of the tiger within, and his experience running in their own little war Olympics, albeit with much less appealing field conditions and training. Walton even details the fact finding and background both he and Coffino went on as they sought the uncovering of his American racing counterparts. Reconnecting and re-meeting some of the other men, or their widows, who were present.
Walton and Coffino have crafted an honest, vulnerable, eye-opening, and yet enjoyable read. “Di Di Mau” takes one of the hardest wars the United States has been a part of and shows readers the realities faced. From the jungle to the beaches, Walton bears all.
For The Love Of The Page 