Becoming a man is difficult . . . even in the best of circumstances, but when it must be done in 1968 and with the Year of the Monkey set to explode onto the cities and battlefields of a war-torn nation, it is only the very best who make the grade.A Common Virtue has the immediacy and punch of today’s fears as it draws on yesterday’s headlines. When the armies of Ho Chi Mihn push across the demilitarized zone on a scale never thought possible and simultaneously strike at hundreds of targets, American Marines are at the forefront – dependent on information from a special reconnaissance force that is the only thing that can stop Hanoi from using a New Year’s opportunity to seize the country.This is the story of Paul Jackson, Sole survivor of a hillside massacre, Marine Corps sniper and reconnaissance innovator, and his epic march through the annals of the horrific bureaucracy that is the United States military in 1968. An eighteen-year-old Marine learns, at an early age, what he must do to survive; what he must do to excel; and what must be done to fit into the most exclusive fraternity in the world.A Common Virtue is about the other half of heroism, the part that pits a warrior against an American public that despises his uniform, against internal factions that brand him a “coward,” and against a beautiful woman who wants nothing more than for him to stay home and love her. It is about growing into manhood in a toxic America and a world gone mad. Tough choices, painful experiences, and an instinct for survival work to create a leader of legend.Exciting, historical, and far reaching, A Common Virtue is an ambitious and explosive creation; one that could only have been written by one who was there.
