Friendly Fire

New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1976. Second Impression [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. 24 cm, 380, [4] pages. Map. Minor edge soiling. Courtlandt Dixon Barnes Bryan (April 22, 1936 - December 15, 2009), better known as C. D. B. Bryan, was an American author and journalist. He served in the U.S. Army in South Korea (1958-1960). He was mobilized again (1961-1962) for the Berlin Crisis of 1961. He was an intelligence officer. Bryan is best known for his non-fiction book Friendly Fire (1976). It began as an idea he sold to William Shawn for an article in The New Yorker, then grew into a series of articles, and then a book. It describes an Iowa farm family, Gene and Peg Mullen, and their reaction and change of heart after their son's accidental death by friendly fire in the Vietnam War. One of the real-life characters featured in the book was future Operation Desert Storm commander H. Norman Schwarzkopf. It was made into an Emmy-winning 1979 television movie of the same name, for which he shared a Peabody Award. It's also been cited in professional military studies Derived from a review posted on line by Joseph Spuckler: Friendly Fire centers around the friendly fire death Michael Mullen and his parents', Pat and Gene, investigation of the event. Bryan admits that he was trying to present the story rather than the method of research. Michael Mullen died in Vietnam from artillery shrapnel from an American gun firing routine Defensive Targeting on February 17, 1970. There is immediate sympathy for the parents as they wade through and fight for information. Suspicion cast on the army with a wide range of clerical errors and the arduous task of fighting a bureaucracy. To help build a case for the parents, their family history in Iowa is traced back and the reader is taken into the family -- normal small town America. The reader feels the frustrations as they battle the army for answers. Pat, especially, becomes an outspoken peace activist. The reader continues with little choice but to wholeheartedly support the Mullens.