A Brief Moment in Time: A True Story

by Richard Hagedorn

Richard Hagedorn graduated from Ingraham HS in Seattle, Washington on the first Saturday in June, 1966 and Monday morning, packed a bag and left for USMCRD, San Diego. He scored expert with the rifle and sharpshooter with the 45 in boot camp training. He attended advanced infantry training at Camp Pendleton and was assigned the MOS 0331, machine guns. He graduated best in class and was promoted to the rank of PFC. His fi rst duty station was in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Force. He was stationed there for 10 months and was promoted to Lance Corporal before being assigned to the 1st Marines in Viet Nam along with the rest of his battalion. They did not go as a single unit however, they we split up and sent to reinforce a number of unit spread across the I Corps area in Viet Nam. After discharge in June 1968 he attended the University of Washington in Seattle, completing a Bachelors of Science in psychology. He currently lives in the LA area and spends some writing time in Tampa, Fl. He continues to write his second novel about the Viet Nam War and his experiences there. He currently works on a PhD in Psychology and writes.

183 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Daniel Hagedorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not a reliable reviewer as my uncle wrote this book. It seems strange, though, to say Richard is my uncle as I have only met him once, in Sausilito, Ca aboard his boat. I was young, too young at the time to understand that much about the trauma he was experiencing or even that of my father. In later years, I would come to know, yet still not understand the horrors of war, how war is a kind of dystopia with its extreme landscape and disorientation.

Not at all perfect, or even close to that, this story is authentic and honest and full of heart. Contained within these pages is an experience like no other. It's hard to discount that. It's hard to understand why soldiers had little access to water, defective equipment and in some cases, not much in the way of training. My uncle did not expect to survive. Some said he was lucky. He contends his prayers were answered. Either way, the war embedded itself upon him like shrapnel from an explosion.

I never knew him. I've said as much, but at least I could learn something of his character and who he was through this brief moment of time chronicle here, Mar 6th, 1968.