“Annamese” Awarded

The Human Relations Indie Book Awards just informed me that my novel Last of the Annamese (Naval Institute Press, 2017) has received their 2022 Gold Winner for Historical and Realistic Fiction award. That makes Annamese my most awarded book. Eric Hoffer and the Maryland Writers Association both conferred honors on the book in years past. The novel is set during the fall of Saigon, from which I escaped under fire after the North Vietnamese were already in the streets of the city.

Annamese is fiction in name only. Every event related in the story really happened. But because the book is a novel, I attributed the actions taken to fictional characters rather than to myself and people I know.

I am honored that the story of what I and others endured during the fall of Saigon is being recognized and commended. After the years when Vietnam was considered a shameful war and I made no mention of my role in it (between 1962 and 1975, I spent more time in Vietnam than I did in the U.S.), I am now able to join my fellow Vietnam vets in pride in our contributions, even though it was the first war the U.S. ever lost.