I was always happy to see first light.By first light it was over . . . for a while.from Down SouthThere were a lot of ways to get killed in Vietnam. You could get zapped, dinged, burned, popped, smoked, or wasted. Marine 2nd Lt. William H. Hardwick was familiar with all of them because, unlike most USMC artillery officerswho waged their war from bunkers inside protected compoundsHardwick as a forward observer fought alongside rifle companies and lived like a grunt for most of his thirteen-month tour.In Okinawa, Vietnam was referred to as Down South, and in 1968, Down South was a bad place to be. Hardwick did it allwalking point, springing ambushes, capturing prisoners, and spending months in the bush surrounded by crack NVA troops. At times the attacking enemy was so close, Hardwick had to call in air strikes almost on top of the Marines themselves just so they could survive. William Hardwick volunteered to fight as one of the few, the proud, the Marines.From the Paperback edition.