Shrapnel Wounds: An Infantry Lieutenant’s Vietnam War Memoir

by Tom Crowley

Shrapnel Wounds is the combat memoir of Lieutenant Tom Crowley, an enthusiastic and highly trained U.S. Army enlistee and Officer Candidate School grad who enters combat in Vietnam in mid-1966.

Highly regarded by his infantry platoon and strongly encouraged by his superiors to become a professional soldier, Crowley almost inadvertently examines the system by which career officers are shepherded through to higher and higher rank—and increasingly rejects that system over the course of his one-year combat tour.

256 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2015

About the author

Tom Crowley graduated from Marquette and Johns Hopkins Universities. He served as an infantry officer in the Vietnam War where he was wounded and decorated for his service.

He worked in Asia as a Foreign Service Officer and with GE spending time in every country in north east and south east Asia. Retired in Bangkok he worked for fourteen years as a full time volunteer with the Mercy Centre, an NGO that helps protect and educate street kids. Tom’s passion is playing pool and, when not otherwise busy, he will be found along side a pool table near his home in Kensington, Maryland.

Tom's latest book is "Mercy's Heroes" telling the story of the herioc children and staff he worked with at the Mercy Centre in Bangkok.

Tom is also the author of non-fiction work “Bangkok Pool Blues”, and the Matt Chance adventures “Viper’s Tail” and “Murder in the Slaughterhouse”. "Murder in the Slaughterhouse" received a Bronze medal award from the Military Writer's Society of America in 2015. His Vietnam memoir is “Shrapnel Wounds.” His latest magazine article (Oct 2017, World War II Quarterly) is Merrill's Marauders in Burma.

His author’s page is at www.facebook.com\tomcrowleybooks

Reviews

[Jorge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, and it also is as advertised: not an "all combat situations" book, but a book focused on the perceptions of one lieutenant in his one year tour in Vietnam

[Rob Ballister · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author Tom Crowley definitely walked the walk as an infantry platoon leader in Vietnam. This book details his account of training for and fighting in combat in the jungles of Vietnam. Most notably, it describes how his attitude changed from giving his all no matter what the order to questioning the purpose and means of the war in which he was fighting.

Filled with personal details about himself and the men he read, the book is an excellent combat memoir about the shaping of a young man's life by the US Army and by combat.

[Military Writers Society of America (MWSA)]

MWSA Review

Shrapnel Wounds, An Infantry Lieutenant’s Vietnam War Memoir is a well-crafted raw look at the combat experience of one soldier, which also represents the experiences of countless others. Tom Crowley’s unabashed account of his time in the military and the lifelong impact it had on him is a must read for anyone who seeks to understand the reality of combat.

Crowley skillfully captures the struggles, heroism, fear, and loss experienced by combat soldiers of all eras. From mundane days, to tragic, senseless deaths, to equally tragic but extraordinarily heroic sacrifices, Crowley takes the reader with him. He brings the reader to boot camp and to the jungles, in a manner that is felt as opposed to just read. He shines a spotlight on the lethal consequences of arbitrary decisions and backwards bureaucracy while demonstrating the courage of the unsung heroes of war.

This book will resonate with combat veterans, provide insight to their families, and educate the ignorant on the true cost of freedom.

Welcome Home.

MWSA Reviewer: Barbara Allen