Paperback $22.95
Audio Book $19.95
Groundbreaking New Book, 'Vietnam Reflections: The Untold Story of the Holley Boys'
January 2017 – New York – From the author of The Psychic Highway: How the Erie Canal Changed America; and other titles, comes Vietnam Reflections: The Untold Story of the Holley Boys. Michael T. Keene’s pioneering new book explores for the first time the Vietnam War’s impact on the America home front. Within the book’s pages, Keene delves into the lives of eight ‘boys’ from a rural farming community in upstate New York who fought and died in Vietnam.
“Vietnam Reflections captures the lives and times of the soldiers from Holley in exquisite detail and with enormous sensitivity. It’s one of the most extensive and moving accounts of the experience of young Americans sent to war in Vietnam that I have read,” said Robert K. Brigham, Professor, Department of History at Vassar College.
Vietnam Reflections, published by Ad Hoc Productions (Paperback retail price: $22.95, ISBN: 978-0-692-79437-1, 246 pages), explores the lives of eight boys from Holley, New York who paid the ultimate price while fighting in Vietnam. All went to the same high school where the average graduating class number just 30 students. The casualty rate was one of the highest per capita of any town or school in America.
Collectively, the ‘Holley boys’ were awarded 40 medals for combat and valor, including seven Purple Hearts, the Bronze Star, Silver Star and the Vietnamese Cross for Gallantry. But they were more than soldiers and heroes.
They played Little League, were Boy Scouts, went to sock-hops, and performed in the high school marching band. They also drove hot-rods, drank beer, smoked, and brawled. They weren’t angels. They were boys – once.”
Now, nearly 50 years later, the Holley boys’ stories are told. Keene uncovers inspiring insights about the lives of these boys and the remarkable small town they grew up in.
“Powerful … Moving”
Marilyn B. Young, Department of History
New York University
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