At the Mercy of Chance: A Pensive Warrior's Fieldnotes From West Point to Kon Tum is a true account of a young man's journey from a humble yet fulfilling nurture in Illinois through graduation from West Point and combat in Vietnam. It's about the myriad ways the reality of active duty tests the relevance of the soaring motto: Duty Honor Country. It is a clear- eyed accounting of individual selflessness of service to the nation side-by-side with the bewildering ambiguity of "boots on the ground" strategy, and provides an answer to the question of how much a soldier is truly asked to give in war.