C Trick: Sort of a Memoir

by Don Cooper and Donald M. Cooper

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0967017610
• ISBN13: 9780967017617
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: Pale Bone
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The book I cannot write

If I were to write about my 23 years in the military, it would read pretty much like Don's memoir. Unfortunately, my mother is still with us and I have to forego putting these things down on paper. While I was in the Air Force, I was stationed at one time on Crete, so I came into contact with the types that Don is describing in C Trick. I certainly understand them a lot better! The chapter called "Cigarette" should come with a warning. It was so funny, I thought I would bust a gut! I had to put it down several times, I was laughing so hard. It brought tears to my eyes! If you liked Mash, you will love C Trick. I wouldn't steer your wrong.

Entertaining disdain for authority

Don Cooper has written a Cold War memoir for the common man - and the casual reader. He delivers fly-on-the-wall observations of what the enlisted men, or at least the ones he knew, felt about duties and military authority while stationed in West Berlin as so-called top secret translators with the U.S. Army Security Agency. Indeed, the statement most apt to be quoted in reviews of this book is Cooper's buddy, hairy Ranger, mentioning, "Every day spent in the Army is a day in my life that's wasted." It's a beaut. It says it all. The men of C Trick were a close-knit group. They may be a scruffy, unruly, profane bunch who painted figurative targets on authority figures, but they have their standards. Cooper has created a plethora of characters one can imagine Hollywood screenwriters embracing - Bessie "Ma" Raines, the offensive mess sergeant who scared the men into eating elsewhere. And, there's Dirty Joe, Chief, Fang, Hairy Ranger, Rock Weed, Rapid Roger, Doc, Duck and Grumpy John. "C Trick" is irreverent fun, an entertaining read, that makes us want to know what happened to Cooper's buddies after they all "died," or rather left the Army and headed back to civilian life.

Army Life During the Cold War

Anyone who has ever read a book about life in the military knows the ingredients: young men, alcohol, sex, boredom, and a cynical distaste for the decidedly undemocratic lifestyle of the armed forces. All these are present in abundance in Don Cooper's C Trick: Sort of a Memoir, a collection of anecdotes and incidents involving the men of the Berlin Field Station of the Army Security Agency during the Vietnam era. Some stories are outrageous, some are touching, but anyone who has spent time in uniform will identify with many of the personages and the situations in which they find themselves. Read this book for a vivid glimpse into the experiences of the men who were on the front lines of the "cold" war.

Citizen Soldiers in the Cold War

Before the all-volunteer Army there was the draft. This ment that most young American men had to decide how they were going to meet their military obligation. As the cold war dragged on while the Viet Nam war heated up how a person met this obligation assumed critical importance. The choices were stark. If you were in college you were safe. If not you could wait to be drafted with the understanding that you could be sent to Viet Nam as a combat soldier, or you could volunteer for an assignment that offered the chance of avoiding infantry combat in a rice paddy. Volunteering, however, also had a price. You would serve for a longer time, often in a foreign country far away from friends and family. C Trick tells the story of some who volunteered. "C Trick, Sort of a Memior" is a delightful tale that described how a group of young citizen soldiers met their military obligation during the last half of the 1960's. Don Cooper describes what it was like to be a soldier in a special Army unit stationed in what may have been the most important cold war hot spot. Using prose from the era he captures all the humor and frustration experienced by young men coping with the rigors of military life. You will experience the frustration of these men when they were expected to perform difficult technical work in an important national security facility while also dealing with military absurdities. This book captures all the details of how these soldiers worked, played and tried to avoid military life while serving in the Army. It is a very refreshing account of how cold war soldiers spent their time while their lives were on hold. There is a lesson in this book on why the West prevailed in the cold war.

C Trick Rules!

Our secrets are out! The folks back home thought we were fighting communism and keeping the Red Horde from over-running "Freedom's Outpost." Well, we did, sort of. Read this book! It gives all the grisly details of the common soldier's fight against military stupidity and blind devotion to the rules.