March 9, 2006 at 6:54 a.m.
‘Twins Platoon’ story finally told
‘Twins Platoon’ story finally told
Sauro has put 15 years into gathering facts and anecdotes, collecting photos, quotes and letters, and seeking out expert advice to complete his book “The Twins Platoon.”
His wife and three kids have been sharing Sauro almost fulltime with this passion since 1990.
Sauro said his daughter even wrote a school paper about her father and the book. “He wrote this book from when I was six to when I was about 15,” his daughter related. “So I have lived my life hearing about Vietnam. I have talked to and seen what an impact (the) book had on the families of the ones he wrote about. The book brought closure to part of their lives they did not know about.
“From a terrible war I have seen good come out of it,” his daughter Sharon wrote in a writing class assignment.
All those years of methodical, patient and sometimes painful toil writing the story of a group of Marines is ended now, leaving Sauro with mixed feelings.
As a self-described introvert, Sauro is entering the realm of public author-slash-book promoter reluctantly.
Sauro has two talk radio shows under his belt and a cuple newspaper interviews. Book-signings and group book discussion events are coming up. Sauro spends hours reading e mails from readers who just want to connect with him.
All this attention and publicity breaches his comfort zone, but Sauro says it’s balanced by gratitude that the book seems to be generating a positive effect.
Especially with this nation’s on-going committment in Irag, Sauro said, we can always use a reminder that in wartime, it isn’t the warrior who’s to blame for the conflict.
Sauro’s book “The Twins Platoon” is not a straight combat story.
In 288 pages it gets the reader inside the platoon members’ lives before and after the war.
It also illustrates the disconnect between the reality of being inside Vietnam and the atmosphere “back home.”
Only about two years’ daily military life passes in the book but the political and psychological ground covered is great.
Sauro observed, “When I left, it seemed as though the majority of people believed that we had to stop the spread of communism. The people I encountered believed that every young able bodied male had a patriotic duty to serve...all I received was praise for joining, which culminated in the swearing in ceremony at Met Stadium.
“When I returned in 1969 something was different. People were more subdued in their reaction to my being in the military. The growing division over our presence in Vietnam became increasingly apparent.”
Sauro said his goal was to write a book “...everybody could read and could place themselves right in the same spot” as the characters.
“I wanted it not to be dry,” he explained.
He struggled with a first-person point of view and then decided a third person narrative was the only way to do this book. “I tried it first person and it just didn’t feel right,” Sauro said. “The book isn’t about me it’s about the group.”
“The Twins Platoon” reads something like a journal, a little like a military log and there’s plenty of dialogue. Black and white photos are inside, some taken while in the service and others from later in the lives of the platoon. The bookcover art is a Newsweek photograph with a member of the platoon in the foreground.
Sauro said he did not keep a journal in Vietnam but he did rely on a packet of letters he’d written which his mother saved. He re-read those to jog his memory and he contacted platoon members or relatives of platoon members. He also delved into the “bigger picture militarily.” He wanted to set the platoon movements into the context of the military strategy in the region. The prestigious endorsements the book has received are testament to the accuracy and reliability of Sauro’s accounts.
This detail also adds dimension to the story that not even combatants were typically aware of, he mentioned.
Sauro met no resistence in developing his book. He contacted platoon members’ relatives and they spoke with him. He requested documents and he got them.
It was as if he was supposed to do this book, Sauro concluded.
As the book came together he sought out the opinion of Vietnam War chronicler Keith William Nolan, and Nolan read Twins Platoon and said he really liked it. Nolan referred Sauro to a literary agent and the agent introduced Sauro to editors and a publishing house with a specialization in military stories.
“I am very optimistic,” he said of those who will read “The Twins Platoon” and talk about it; hopefully opening up communications with those who served.
“There are people living in Minnesota from South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia who strongly supported the U.S. presence in Vietnam. On the other hand there are some people in Vietnam who favored communism and believed the United States was a foriegn nation invading their country and trying to forcefully impose our form of government on them.
He added, “There will always be conflicting views. Unfortunately views don’t always reflect the facts or the truth of the matter.
“The majority view at one time was that the world was flat. The real challenge for all of us is to continually seek the truth.”
Sauro, who lives in North Branch, will be book-signing and participating in a group discussion about the book, Saturday, March 18 from 1 to 4 p.m. at Morgan & Company, 25 North Lake Street in Forest Lake.
He also has an event April 19 at Har Mar Mall Barnes and Noble and he’s scheduled to be at the Anoka Historical Society in Anoka, April 22.
The book can be ordered directly through www.zenithpress.com.
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