Blackfoot is Missing

By William F. Owen.
Random House Australia. 296pp, $29.95

Reviewer :: Cpl Troy Hutchinson

CCC Kontum, a US Special Forces unit, runs top-secret cross border reconnaissance missions into Laos and Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

The government denies their involvement, the public is unaware of their existence and to the rest of the Special Forces community, they are but a rumour.

Based on actual events during the Vietnam War between January and August 1970, this book reads as a collection of memories, actions and raw emotion from this violent conflict.

Forged into a readable story, it tells the tale of a Harvard dropout volunteering for service in Vietnam to be a hero, to emulate his deceased father.

During basic training, he hears whispers of a secret unit, right in the thick of things in Vietnam and asks to serve with the Special Forces.

William F. Owen's first book is a good read, with humour, action and suspense.

I would recommend this book, if only to learn a little more of the clandestine activity of America's secret war.