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MILITARY
BOOKS
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Daniel C. Webster
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Sergeant First Class Daniel C. Webster, USA (ret.), “better known as "Duke,"
has had only military articles published. This is his first book. Finally, being prodded
by many of his friends after listening to his tales of Vietnam, he agreed that the story of his tour of duty in 'Nam was worth
telling to the world. THE PUCKER FACTOR, 34 short chapters, each a separate story, is a work of love.
Now, in his golden years, this retired Army Sergeant First Class has settled in the panhandle of Florida to live out
his life with his Korean wife, Suk Cha. Working full time as a security guard, seventy year old Webster
and his wife do a bit of fishing and a lot of relaxing.” Sergeant First Class Daniel C. Webster is
the author of The Pucker Factor: One Noncombatants Vietnam Memoirs.
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According to the book description of The Pucker Factor: One Noncombatants Vietnam Memoirs,
“Pucker Factor is a phrase familiar to the military.
Fear, surprise, and the unknown are its major components. Jointly or one at a time, these components
can scare you to death, or you are certain you will die, and then you are afraid you will not die. The
author and THE PUCKER FACTOR became very close friends during his tour of duty in Vietnam. As a noncombatant,
he earned the Air Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, Crew Member Wings, and the Purple Heart. THE PUCKER
FACTOR details the much easier living and working conditions "Headshed personnel" endured than those of the foot
soldier. Although certainly not a war hero, he earned the respect of his fellow GIs by giving of his time
and efforts to make his units better; he made the best of clerical errors to construct a photo lab for the 20th Engineer Brigade
at Bien Hoa, he assisted his fellow 164th Aviation Group NCOs in robbing the Army Supply Depot near Saigon to obtain cots
and wall lockers his Can Tho company could not obtain through normal channels, and he built the "mother of all barbecues"
for the 336th Assault Helicopter Company at Soc Trang. He had time to fall in love with a beautiful Vietnamese
widow just as his stateside marriage was going down the drain, only to lose his new love just as quickly as he found her.
He moves from the "Jungle Eaters" as they clear back the jungle with Rome plows in the Hobo Woods,
to fly with the Commanders of the 13th Assault Helicopter Battalion and the 164th Combat Aviation Group on missions in the
Delta to rout out and destroy the VC in the U-Mihn Forest, then to prepare operational maps for the 336th Assault Helicopter
Company missions. His work takes him from being Information Sergeant to Unit Photographer to Intelligence
Analyst to Intel Sergeant to Perimeter NCO. An interesting memoir of one soldier's life on and off duty.”
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One reader of The Pucker
Factor: One Noncombatants Vietnam Memoirs said, “I love to read memoirs, and Daniel Webster's "The
Pucker Factor" is a good one because he covers the good, the bad and the ugly about himself as he recounts his story
of his time in Viet Nam in the heart of the war. He was not a "war hero"--instead, his role was as a non-combatant,
as a clerk and photographer and assisting the 336th Assault Helicopter Company in making maps for missions. He had a number
of roles as a non-combatant in Viet Nam, moving around the country, starting as an information sergeant, ending up in intelligence.
But the real story Webster tells is of the life of a soldier off-duty in Viet Nam.
The stories are of a soldier's daily
life, human interest stories. The problems with a wife in distant Oklahoma, the girls he meets, loves and loses in Viet Nam.
Webster was no angel though he tried to be a gentleman. So this book has stories of pimps, prostitutes and sex and drinking.
Nothing you wouldn't have heard from the average Nam vet, but still, beware this isn't a pretty tale in every aspect. But
it's an honest one. Webster talks about his own faults, while trying to give the reader a feel for what life was like during
the war.
The writing is pretty good--Webster
can tell a story well. The photos are grainy as one would expect in a paperback edition and that's a shame--I can tell some
of them are excellent photos and I'd love to see them reproduced as they are meant to be seen. I enjoyed the book a lot; it
reminded me of the tales my classmates and friends told me about their time in Viet Nam.”
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