Daniel L. Lawrence

Nice Day for Flyin' Daniel L. Lawrence

In our lives, there are events that occur that change our lives forever, such as being drafted or getting married or having children. Sometimes even killing. Events that can't be changed or taken back. Nice Day for Flyin' is a story of one young boy, Ian McIntyre, who upon being drafted during the later part of the Vietnam War, his first real turning point, is forced to leave a life and future he has known and planned for all his short life. This is a story of lost innocence, betrayal, lost love, and, death. It is also a story of found love and life, friendship, and trust. This is a story based individual events,in many ways on my experiences and those of others I have served with, while other parts of the story are just plain and simple fabrication. The characters are composites of many people, and the events are based on experiences and war stories of many people but have been changed in some ways. This is a story of how it might have been, not how it really was or is now. This is not a history lesson; it is a story and nothing more. The language in this work is, at times, rough as it should be. Real life is not G-rated. I started this book as a retelling of my own experience in Vietnam and after I returned; but it quickly turned into a long, technical, detail-filled and boring history, which I promptly deleted. Instead I took events and stories as separate entities and worked them into a piece of fiction, a story of how it could have been or perhaps how I would have liked it to have been. If you want a history lesson, read Stanley Karnow's Vietnam: A History. If you want to laugh, cry, and be entertained, then give Nice Day for Flyin' a read.