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The Court-Martial of Corporal Nutting: A Memoir of the Vietnam War Kindle Edition

by John R. Nutting (Author), Roy M. Franklin (Foreword) Format: Kindle Edition

4.9 33 ratings

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John Nutting is nineteen years old in 1966. Raised in small-town Idaho, to a family that could trace its military roots back to the Revolutionary War, Nutting knows he’s going to fight the war as a Marine. On the day of his high school graduation, he swears into the US Marine Corps and boards the plane to boot camp.

All too soon he’s in the jungle, a greenhorn member of F” Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Division. Firing on an unseen enemy, burying friends killed by booby traps, and struggling with the notion that many people back home were totally opposed to the war, Nutting begins to wonder what are his odds of coming home? During a rescue mission gone wrong, a mortar round explodes beside his team, digging shrapnel deep into his leg. Aboard the surgical hospital ship, where he is sent to recover, he sees the indescribable injuries of Marines who had been captured and tortured by the North Vietnamese Army, and makes the decision to join the 3rd Marine Regimental Scout/Snipers at Camp Carroll.

After the locals betray the scout/snipers assigned to help their village, resulting in the death of two of Nutting’s buddies, Nutting finds an escape to sanity in marijuana. This begins his continuous recourse to the drug that lasts throughout his tour, done only in the bunker or when away on R&Rnever in the field and never on duty. Despite his proven record, when he is caught in possession of marijuana, his arrest and the ensuing court martial changed his life and his reputation forever.

Editorial Reviews

Review

" An incredibly well-written blend of thoughts remembered forever. . . . I left impressed by the author's ability to perfectly depict a tormented but functioning mind, weary of war. I give this book my highest recommendation for ANY audience." -The Military Writers Society of America

About the Author

John R. Nutting is a Vietnam veteran who served as a scout/sniper in the Vietnam War.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00NS42FEE
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Skyhorse (November 18, 2014)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 18, 2014
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3951 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 225 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #1,788,403 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #133 in Military Law (Kindle Store)
- #241 in Biographies of the Marines
- #527 in Military Law (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.9 33 ratings

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Bob Pasco

A very worthwhile memoir

Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2014

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If you're looking for a history or the war in Vietnam. Or justification of your views either for or against, this is not the book for you. This is a memoir of one young marine and his tour in Vietnam. Of how he got there, his experiences there, and a defining end of his tour that nearly negated his honorable service to his country. I think a lot of vets will identify with cpl. Nuttings experiences and it may bring back memories both ridiculous and terrifing. I would recommend this to non vets to help understand the smaller day to day events that, while may not be defining moments, make up the bulk of time a person may spend in a combat zone. The times when you make bonds that last a lifetime as cpl. Nutting obviously has.

4 people found this helpful

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Madeleine Harrington

what it felt like to live it

Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2014

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If you are going to read about war and Vietnam this book gets it right. It's clear, it's honest, it doesn't run an agenda. It is just a 20 year old mind and 45 years of reflection, that has been distilled into a vivid description of the meaning of being alive in a complex world.

No prescribed conclusions, just the experience, what it felt like to live it. The REAL thing, doesn't care about your position, opinion or philosophy, you just get to learn from a life, through an act of personal heroism, that has let you inside his mind to see what he saw.

The irony, the transformations, they're all here.

One person found this helpful

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Fossil

Excellent

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2024

Verified Purchase

Best Vietnam book I have read in a long time.

Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2014

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As a Cold War Marine who never saw combat, I purchased this book because one of the greatest leaders that I ever worked for wrote a forward on it. Corporal Nutting's combat experience in Vietnam filled a void for me that is irreplaceable. I often felt guilty never having gone to Vietnam--missing the draft by one ping-pong ball in the 1969 lottery--and not enlisting until after I had completed my college education--after the war was over. Corporal Nutting told it like it was. Some things I could relate to superficially from field experiences, but never under the threat of combat. As to the second half of the book, I initially had little sympathy for Corporal Nutting's use of marijuana. I know of a Marine who lost his life in a noncombat environment--due to the use of marijuana by another Marine. By the end of the book, I was more conflicted than when I first read the forward. The book forced me to deal with my value and belief systems, and challenged how differently I might have weighed in on the paradox Corporal Nutting found himself in, had I served at least one day in Vietnam.

3 people found this helpful

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Mary Lou England

The "Court-Martial of Cpl. Nutting"

Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2015

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I am really impressed with John's writing, the detail, ability to recall so many happenings and really happy that his family saved all those letters and how hard it must have been for him to re-read them and put all that down on paper. He is a wonderful man and we have known him since baby-hood.

2 people found this helpful

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JOHN IMSDAHL

Life in the Marines & Vietnam

Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2015

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I enjoyed this book. I am an infantry veteran of Vietnam and one who also felt the full weight of the UCMJ when one is not a general's or career officer's son. My selfish motivation was to obtain ideas for my own story, but I began to like John a lot for what he did and how he recalled it for us to enjoy. It is more about Vietnam than it is about a Court-Martial as the title suggests. Nevertheless it is a good read.
3rd Herd, D Troop, 2/17 Cavalry, 101st Abn Div. I Corp 1969-70. Recon-Infantry. "Dirty Delta". US Army.

One person found this helpful

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India

Great time period read

Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2015

Verified Purchase

This was an excellent read that described the reality of the Vietnam war. I would add that it was also a difficult read for me in that it brought back some painful memories of that time period.

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Donald L. Davis

Well Written Combat Memior

Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2018

Verified Purchase

The court-martial is almost anti climatic. Good picture of Marine "brothers" in Viet Name. A good tribute to Notting's Marine buddies.