Combat Bandsman
Memoir of a Tour in Vietnam with the 9th Infantry Division, 1969
Robert F. Fischer
McFarland, Jefferson, North Carolina, 2016, 256 pages
Book Review published on: July 21, 2023
Fifty-plus years after the fact, many Americans are considering their experiences during the exceedingly turbulent 1960s and 1970s with a detachment in both time and space that enables contemplative reflection without the clouding effect of often raw and intense emotions. It is reflection largely divorced from the emotions attached to fresh experience. In the book Combat Bandsman: Memoir of a Tour in Vietnam with the 9th Infantry Division, 1969, author Robert Fischer tells the story of when he was drafted into the U.S. Army after he graduated from college and his 2-S student deferment changed to 1-A. This was certainly not a unique situation; the same thing happened to thousands of young men throughout the Nation. Individual responses varied widely; some enlisted in a service of their choice, others enlisted in the reserve component of a service, and a few chose to flee the country to avoid the draft. Fischer chose to let the chips fall where they may. Although he had been a basic program student in Army ROTC while as a student at Seton Hall University, he chose not to continue in the advanced program, which would have led to a commission as a second lieutenant. Consequently, upon graduation, he was ripe for induction via the selective service draft. His autobiographical narrative indicates his attitude was stoic and fatalistic: “This is the hand I was dealt. Ride it out and figure out how to get through it alive.”
Fischer refers often to “the green machine,” a euphemism for a large insensitive bureaucracy that apparently only exists to fill its own requirements. All too often, the actions of the bureaucracy are inexplicable, occasionally defying all reasonable logic. To the individual soldier, the behavior of the bureaucracy creates an environment similar to living in a Franz Kafka short story. While the “green machine” perspective is largely true, Fischer also recognizes that people—real flesh and blood individual people—make decisions that affect the lives of soldiers. In Fischer’s case, several inflection points stand out. The first was an interview with a career guidance counselor after completing basic combat training that sent him on a trajectory to become a clerk-typist and personnel management specialist, military occupational specialty (MOS) 71H. The second was an unknown personnel clerk at Fort Stewart who recorded an additional 02B MOS trumpeter in his personnel file when he became a temporary bugler in the 80th Army Band. The third was Warrant Officer Ed Johns, bandmaster of the 9th Infantry Division Band. Johns plucked Fischer out of the personnel replacement stream arriving at Long Binh, auditioned him as a trumpet player, and had him assigned to the 9th Infantry Division Band. That string of events is how Fischer ended up serving his tour as a trumpet player in Vietnam.
This book is essentially a diary, a journal of experiences as Fischer passed into, through, and out of the U.S Army as a duty-bound, patriotic draftee. It is matter of fact, a story told from a soldier’s perspective, with very little political commentary on the side. He discusses prevailing attitudes of the time, and his own take on them. His overarching goal as a draftee was to serve out his time and survive the experience. Even as a member of the band, life could be hazardous. The 9th Infantry Division’s headquarters compound was frequently under attack by mortars and rockets, so the division headquarters was not a “safe place.” Band members also traveled frequently to far-flung outposts to perform at changes of command and other ceremonies, and travel by road always presented the risk of ambush.
Overall, this book is worth the time to read. It provides a window into the past without much of the political histrionics of many narratives. Readers are also fortunate that Fischer was a bit of a camera buff, and his personal collection of photographs pepper the entire book with glimpses of life as seen through the eyes of a young draftee.
Book Review written by: Thomas E. Ward II, PhD, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas