The First Door is the Final Exit

In the spring of 1964, I watched the nightly news coverage of the Vietnam War on TV. As a high school senior, with the prospect of being drafted after graduation and sent to Vietnam hanging over me, I watched young men my age surrender their lives for a war I could not understand. I could see their physical suffering; I could not begin to imagine the emotional prices they paid. After reading “The First Door is the Final Exit”, I have at least a sense of how they tried to survive, during what for too many became their one year in Hell. I now understand why those that did finally come home, came home a casualty.This book puts you in the combat boots of private Winston, face to face with the mud, blood and physical and psychological terrors of jungle warfare, of unseen enemies and the inevitable cynicism, “gallows humor”, private and shared fears, and desperate dreams that became the coping skills of many. The author, Timothy O’Neil did survive it all; his book puts you in your own personal ‘tour of duty’ in a way that few could imagine, let alone recreate in such tense, gut wrenching detail, that leaves the reader wondering if Winston and his fellow “Wolfhounds” will survive the next page, let alone the war.

The story may be fiction, but Timothy O’Neil brings the real war home. For those of us who were there, this book assaults the senses with memories of the sights, sounds, stench, and reality of Vietnam wrapped around a gripping, well-developed story of love, fear, and camaraderie. O’Neil’s characters - Winston, Rufus, Blackie, Prince, and the NCOs and officers – were all fully developed, relatable, and, for those who spent time in uniform, easily recognizable. Their slang, their fears, their sense of humor, their dreams, and their bravado were all hallmarks of the everyday soldier.O’Neil gives the reader a gripping page turner that puts you in the middle of the action. You’ll not only hear, but also feel the “whump, whump, whump” of the chopper blades as you lift off from the LZ. You’ll hunker down behind a paddy dike, up to your elbows in water, as tracer rounds zip overhead and leeches assault your exposed skin. You’ll feel the unspoken, but always present terror that resides just below the surface as hours spent on routine, “peaceful,” non-contact patrols can literally blow up in an instant with one wrong step.If you enjoy a rich, character-driven story, this book is for you. If you like non-stop action that’s credible, real, and true, this book’s for you. Veterans of the war will easily relate. Others will, perhaps for the first time, experience a taste of what that war was and what it did to all those who served.

O'Neil tells the story of star-crossed lovers Winston and Veronica in the waning sixties. Both count the days until they will be reunited after Winston is drafted to serve in Vietnam while Veronica attends medical school back in "The World." O'Neil uses his own experiences to craft a level of authenticity describing the cognitive dissonance of US soldiers trying to make sense of an uncanny enemy as well as the intense, horrifying chaos of combat. Some passages, especially around the disfigured flora of the Michelin rubber plantation, completely transport the reader to the unrelenting, harsh jungle. “The First Door is the Final Exit” also details the intransigent bureaucracy of the Army; the callous lifers and wanton leadership interested only in self-aggrandizement. In this tale, the Army itself becomes an agent of fate for Winston, yet Veronica struggles too with harassment from a creepy intern. It makes you wonder about how much free will anyone has.

I judge a book by how long it stays on the nightstand. Most of my reading is to unwind as I fall asleep. This book was quickly moved from the nightstand to my reading chair. I could not fall asleep while reading it. The charters and location were well developed and I really got invested in what was going on. Certainly a book that you can pick up and get lost in reading. It was very easy to picture what was going on by how descriptive everything was. You felt Like You were there!!

This is not just another novel about the Vietnam war......It's the real thing and you are brought through many real life and death experiences......Thank you for a real account of how unfair life and war can truly be.......

Although fiction much of this could have been or actually did occur. Bravo, O’Neil