They were young, and they were fighting a war no one wanted to fight. They chose to serve their country despite these challenges. In In Our Duffel Bags , authors Richard Geschke and Robert A. Toto narrate the stories and the experiences of what junior army officers faced as citizen soldiers during pre-voluntary military service from 1969 to 1972.



This memoir provides an inside view of the military on the training fields of the Cold War in West Germany and on the combat fields of Vietnam. It presents a poignant and detailed drawing of what junior officers contended with during these turbulent times in American history. From the training grounds in Fort Benning, Georgia; to the jungle warfare school in Panama; to the streets of West Germany; and to the rice paddies of Vietnam, In Our Duffel Bags intimately describes the sights, sounds, and smells of life in the military



Much more than a historical account, In Our Duffel Bags interweaves Geschke's and Toto's individual experiences and perspectives, ties them back to their families, and sets it all within the volatile historical and political setting of the 1960s and 1970s. It shows how these times affected history as well as impact current politics.