| About the Book
Many lives are forever changed on December 1, 1969 -- the first
military draft since 1942. Ronnie Remson is a football All-American
with a secret vow that guides his life. BJ Johnson makes the holes
in the opposing line through which Ronnie runs. Ronnie and BJ take
different paths after December 1, 1969. Ronnie, driven by his
secret vow and influenced by a young naval hospital corpsman named
Kathy J. O'Brian, enters the US Navy Hospital Corps. BJ, driven by
a desire to make his mama proud, enlists in the US Marine Corps.
Ronnie and BJ take separate journeys inside war-ravaged Southeast
Asia. Ronnie's world is cloaked in secrecy in places distant from BJ, but
not different in intended outcomes.
What is the measure of a young man like Ronnie Remson who decides to
become a hospital corpsman to honor a personal vow? From where does
his conviction, courage and mettle come? And can Ronnie keep his vow
in the irrationality of a covert war?
The
Red Caduceus
provides profound insight into the lives of Ronnie's parents, a
special friend and his mother, and a young female corpsman who knows,
firsthand, the cost of combat. The Red Caduceus tells
a fifteen month saga that is much more than a shoot'em-up war story.
The Red Caduceus reminds us that whenever American military
personnel are in harm's way, someone dedicated to saving their lives
is standing next to them ... someone wearing the universal symbol of
healing ... a caduceus.
About the Author
Gerald A. Strand served fifteen years in the US Naval Reserves as a
hospital corpsman and Medical Services Corps Officer. His duties
ranged from bedpans to commanding officer to the Chief of Naval
Operation's Task Force on Personal Excellence and National Security.
He earned a Ph.D. in 1977 and retired in 2001 as the President/CEO of
a community-based health education campus affiliated with Duke
University and as an adjunct assistant dean at Duke University Medical
Center. The Red Caduceus is based, in part, on
a brief experience in the rural Mekong Delta region of Viet Nam. He
lives with his wife in Florida, where he writes and teaches.
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