Coffee, Tea or Ammo

Set during the Vietnam War, Coffee, Tea or Ammo chronicles the adventures of Bob Thomas, from his unsuccessful attempts to dodge the draft, through basic training and advanced individual training, to his service in Vietnam with an army artillery battery. On one level the narrative is impelled by Thomas's attempt to resolve the conflict between his agonistic and irenic impulses. However, the novel also relies on satire, precipitated by the bevy of unnerving characters Thomas encounters, such as a predatory homosexual drill sergeant, an oversexed lieutenant who frags another officer, a captain who keeps his identity secret from his troops and communicates through written acronyms, a colonel who counts fallen trees as KIAs, and a beleaguered American advisor on the run from an ARVN soldier trying to kill him to save face. Although Thomas's war experience is different from what he anticipated, it has a lasting impact on his life.