The Short Timers

This novel was the source text of Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket". It follows the career of the sardonic narrator from the organized sadism of Marine basic training to an assignment as a combat reporter in Vietnam to his experiences as a platoon commander after the Tet offensive, portraying the descent into barbarism that marked America's intervention in Vietnam. This is the brutally honest story of Cpl. Joker and his battle-hardened company, survivors of the months of nightmarish horror that described Vietnam in 1968. Counting the days until their release from the prison of combat, they know their last day in Nam could be their last on earth