BOOK NOTES

An autobiographical account of medic's service in Vietnam

"Fullback One Six" by Vsevolod Kohutiak, M.D. Pittsburgh: Dorrance Publishing Co. Inc., 2000, 128 pp., $15 (paperback).

"Fullback One Six" by Vsevolod Kohutiak, M.D., is the autobiographical account of Dr. Kohutiak's involvement as a medic in the Vietnam War. He joined the U.S. Army Reserve while a student at the Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, N.Y., by enrolling in the Berry Plan, which allowed him to finish medical school and avoid the draft. After completing a year of residency, he was ordered to active duty and soon after was assigned a tour of duty in Vietnam.

As Dr. Kohutiak writes of his book, "This account is intended to show how the war touched one individual. It is a tale of my war, representing the microcosm of the war involving a specific battalion in a specific place in time."

During his yearlong tour of duty, Dr. Kohutiak describes his sense of futility and anger because he felt the need for a physican in the field was outdated. The use of "med-evac" helicopters to transport the injured to nearby hospitals made him feel like he was wasting his time. There were boring stretches of waiting at base camp, playing pinochle and chess.

Dr. Kohutiak also describes the change of his general attitude about the war from pride to disillusionment. After surveying the carnage left behind by a vicious battle at Suoi Tre, Dr. Kohutiak writes, "I was pro-war when I was drafted and believed in 'the cause,' but to me war was something remote, something unreal then. It was like a chess game, a game of tactics. ... I had seen old people die and accident victims die, but all that seemed to have a reason, even a purpose in the great scheme of things. But this? This had no reason, no purpose. It made no sense at all."

Dr. Kohutiak is a native of Ukraine currently living in Haverford, Pa. He is active with the Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, July 21, 2002, No. 29, Vol. LXX

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