For eight months in 1970, John Martin served his country in the U.S. Army in South Vietnam. Most days his job was to find and kill Vietnamese. But there were also days when he tried to save them, with medicine or with a hammer and nails.

At night, inside the wire, the enemy had a different face-drunks, drug addicts, assassins, and spies. Yet in some ways, the ''little war'' John battled for decades at home was even more dangerous, destructive, and difficult to understand than the one he'd left behind in Vietnam.

Even today, countless lives are lost to wars that many veterans fight alone-little wars that begin when tours of duty end. This is the candid story of John's two wars and the people who helped him survive.

The memoir was cobbled together from decades of journal entries, short stories, and other writings found and assembled by John's son, Charles J. Martin.