Viet Man is about the transformation of a young man who enlisted in the Navy during the Viet Nam War, was trained as a hospital corpsman, was transferred into the Marine Corps, then sent to Viet Nam where he joined the elite First Recon. It is a first person narrative of alternating episodes experienced in the rear and in the bush. In the rear, Doc encounters a straw-haired Midwestern farm boy who shows him how to prepare a meal of long-rats and Loopie, a Puerto Rican from the Bronx who shares a guilt torn confession that borders on confabulation. In the bush, Doc experiences the terror of accidentally releasing a live grenade among his men, of rushing to rescue a wounded marine, and of sharing a quiet conversation in a bunker with Trang, a South Vietnamese soldier. After being assigned to the Recon Dive Team and attending the Navy diving school in the Philippines, he returns to Viet Nam where he engages in numerous combat dives and river operations. At the end of his tour, he is processed out of the military. And upon his return to his hometown as a veteran, he faces a jarring reception of insolence, indifference, and fragmented flashbacks.
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