Georgtown's Weekly Newspaper

Wednesday, October 26, 1983

New book details vet's experience in Vietnam

by ELLEN DAVIS

As kids, Brian Wizard and Sid Rogers use to play capture the flag behind their houses on Warren Street.

Years later, however, the tow boyhood friends found themselves playing capture the flag for real- in a far away country called Vietnam.

For Wizard, like most 18-year olds at the time, the experience is one which changed his life forever. To help others understand what that change was like, he has written a book about his experiences in Vietnam entitled "Permission to Kill."

Rogers is now helping Wizard spread his story around the country.

This month, he is beginning a large scale marketing drive to promote the book. He's beginning the drive to promote the book. He's beginning the drive here in Georgetown but eventually hopes it will become nationwide.

"I think it will be a major book," Rogers said. "Brian will be a household name by the time we're finished."

Rogers is coordinating the marketing of the book in this country because Wizard now lives in Australia. He has lived there two years in the northern coastal town of Port Douglas.

"Permission to Kill" is a fictional book, but it is based on Wizard's real life experience in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969.

"It deals with the transformation of an 18-year old to a hardened killer," Rogers said. In the book, Wizard assumes the name of Willie Maykett, a small town boy who joins the army to escape the boredom of factory jobs which became his life after high school. His story is told mostly through the use of conversation and at times resembles a diary.

Enlisted in 1968

Wizard, son of Mr. and Mrs. Russell Wizard of Warren Street, joined the army in 1968 after graduating from Georgetown High School in 1967.

"Brian really didn't have any skills and he figured if he enlisted in the Army he could learn a trade," Rogers said.

His first 12 months in Vietnam, Wizard served as a helicopter gunner, a job which had a life expectancy of seven months.

Although he originally only planned to serve three years, Wizard stayed in the army until the Vietnam War ended in 1973. After the war, he entered California State University at Sonoma and received a degree in expressive arts.

According to Rogers, Wizard spent 12 years working on his book, while supporting himself with a variety of jobs such as jewelry making and sculpting.

After the manuscript was finished, it was rejected by 36 publishers in Australia and America, so Wizard decided to publish it himself.

"He typeset it, pasted it up, printed it, collated it and bonded it," Rogers said.

A limited edition of the book -960 copies- came out in February and since then, Wizard has been promoting it in Australia.

"He's already quite a personality in Australia," Rogers said. Rogers said Wizard has already been on national radio and television in Australia promoting the book and that a play of the book was recently taped by the Australian Broadcasting Company.

In an interview with ABC Radio in Sydney, Wizard said he wrote the book to share with people who didn't know what happened in Vietnam, especially women and young people.

"Most people came back from the war and didn't' want to talk about it," he said.

Too graphic

Unfortunately, however, Wizard said the detail in his book is what kept publishers from wanting to take it.

"It's too honest and too graphic," he told the Australian interviewers.

For instance, Wizard's book details scenes in his barracks at night when the soldiers took to heavy drinking and use of drugs.

"If I was going to die I was going to die with a smile on my face," Wizard said.

But even if a publisher had wanted his book, Wizard said he probably would have refused the contract anyway.

"The contracts didn't look good to me," he said. "I had wanted to do it all along any ways. There's no difference between making a book and making art."

The first step in doing the book, Wizard said, was to teach himself how to write.

"When I first started I couldn't put tow sentences together," he said.

After he finished a rough draft of the book, Wizard hired a professional editor to go through it and give him advice.

He then reread and rewrote the book and gave it to the editor again.

"I probably read it 50 times," he said.

While Wizard is promoting his book in Australia, Rogers is trying to coordinate a media drive for the book in this country in April. The drive will coincide with the expected publication in March of a commercial edition of the book which will be in standard paperback size.

Rogers, who is a writer himself, said it was natural for him to get involved in promoting the book.

"Brian and I write each other 20 to 30 page letters at least once a week," he said.

Rogers said he is hoping the success of Wizard's book will eventually lead the two into a publishing company of their own.

"Brian now gets half a dozen calls a month from other people who want him to publish their books for them," Rogers said.

Rogers said their company, which has already been dubbed the Starquill Publisher, would try to get the U.S. rights for books published in Australia and to export American books to Australia.

"We'll finalize our plans when Brian gets here," he said.

Rogers said "Permission to Kill" is only the first of three books Wizard plans to publish about his experiences during and after the war.

He is already halfway through a second book entitled "Back in the World", which deals with Maykett's return to America, and plans call for a third book which will deal with his resettlement in Australia.

Although many books about Vietnam are currently appearing on the scene, Rogers said Wizard's book is different.

"It's not a political or moral statement," he said.

The subtitle of the book is "a warm and open look into a cold and closed off situation."

Rogers said the book was getting very good reviews from the Vietnam Veterans of Australia because of the way it contributes to the understanding of what Vietnam veterans experienced in the war.

He said the veterans are trying to get a grant from the Literary Board in Australia to enable Wizard to continue his writing.

Anyone interested in obtaining a copy of the original edition of "Permission to Kill", all of which are autographed, may do so by mailing $13.95 to P.O. Box 13, Georgetown, Ma. 01833.