The Sebastopol TIMES & NEWS June 5 Trough June 11, 1986

'Permission to Kill'

Reviewed by Ron Sonenshine

The apocalyptic tales of America's youth in Vietnam bring the 1960's back in a slightly different color.

A Sebastopol man's autobiographical log shows the mundane, routine horror that greeted 18-and 19-year-old boys in a place where killing, drugs and sex revealed a common but twisted version of reality.

Brian Wizard, now 36, was a gunner on a smoke ship called Pollution. He spent time at Bien Hoa airbase, where the Thunderhawks helicopter squadron wreaked havoc in South Vietnam. His adventures are catalogued in his autobiographical novel, "Permission to Kill."

The monotony of the book gives the reader, and those whose only view of Vietnam was from television, an image of life in a bloody war where battle-instigated adrenaline rushes counteracted the most powerful marijuana highs.

Wizard's character, Willie Maykett, is transformed from a fumbling new gunner to an experienced sharpshooter who takes little guff from superiors with penchants for military decorum in a war zone.

Swooping in on combatants from 1000 fee above, Wizard describes in all-too-bloody detail the action and the kills. It's not pretty. Death is all around as Wizard explains how America's young tried to cope with an unpopular war and Vietnam reality.

There's no way to rekindle the old anti-war sentiment here; the reader is taken on a tour of duty that was invisible when CBS flew into Nam.

The reader roots hard for Pollution's crew as one-by-one Wizard's buddies fall to the curse of the Vietnam short-timer.

The heroics of Pollution's crew as they battle military order and a nagging desire to end their Vietnam days alive and get back to "the world" are the central theme.

The epidemic problems of Vietnam vets when they do get back to the world are shown as Wizard's character struggles with life in Hong Kong and Singapore. Just as shocking is how the adrenaline flows abroad Pollution after a week's R&R.

For the vet, "Permission to Kill" is haunting; for the student it's a legitimate perception of the war that tore apart Vietnam and America. ]

"Permission to Kill" is available at Eeyore Books or by mail at Box 66, 1579 Farmers Lane, Santa Rosa.