Robin Fahr

Book Review by Robin Fahr: 400 Moms by Jill West, RD

March 1, 2014 by Robin Fahr Leave a Comment

The solution to obesity may be found in one four-letter word: MOMS. That according to Jill West, Registered Dietitian, mother of three, and author of 400 MOMS: Discover What 400 Nutrition Experts Feed Their Kids.

Beyond obesity, West and health professionals everywhere agree that the foods we serve our children can make a huge difference in their behavior, school success, sick days, health, fitness, and even their self-esteem. But it’s not easy–with both parents working, running a household, after school commitments, homework, and modern-day stressors, getting something on the table that’s fast AND healthy seems nearly impossible sometimes.

Jill West can relate. She’s the picture of health, obviously practicing what she preaches, but preaching is far from West’s style as she confesses that she doesn’t really like to cook and that the question at rush hour, “Mom, what’s for dinner?” isn’t exactly music to her ears. She has a way of making moms everywhere feel a bit better about the job we’re doing to healthfully fuel our families in a stressed out, non-stop world. In 400 MOMS, West surveys over 400 Registered Dietitians, also moms, to find out how they do it. The result is a comprehensive “Go-To” guide for mothers everywhere with hundreds of practical tips, strategies and solutions for raising a healthy child.

ALIVE Magazine: Tell me about 400 MOMS and how you came up with the title.

Jill West: The 400 MOMS book is about helping moms provide healthy meals and snacks for their children and shaping their eating habits for a lifetime. The idea for the book came after years of hanging out at sports events and waiting to pick up kids after school. Knowing I was a Registered Dietitian, other moms would frequently ask me questions about how I feed my kids, such as “How often do you let your kids eat fast food?” or “What do you think of sports drinks?”

I wondered how other nutrition experts would answer, so I surveyed over 400 dietitians, who are also moms, about how they feed their kids. I asked what they give their kids for breakfast, how they get their kids to eat vegetables, what quick and healthy dinners they serve their kids, and hundreds more relevant questions. 400 MOMS is my own personal experience and advice combined with the ideas shared by these 400 dietitian moms about what works with our own children.

AM: What is your breakfast suggestion for busy school mornings?

JW: Cereal was the #1 choice for the 400 Moms. Why? Because it’s quick, it can be eaten dry “on-the-go” or with milk, and it’s healthy, as long as you choose the low sugar cereals. Guess, which is the #1 cereal nutrition experts, feed their kids: Cheerios! Why? Because kids from highchair age all the way up to adults can eat them, and they’re healthy. My criteria for healthy cereals are six grams of sugar or less and three grams of fiber or more per serving. Cheerios is both: low in sugar and a good source of fiber.

I also have lists of “Best Picks” and “Worst Picks” in the book, which moms tell me they love! Moms can turn to the “Best Picks” page for cereals and have many options to choose from. It simplifies their grocery shopping because they can go straight to the “Best Picks” list and know they’re making a healthy choice for their kids.

AM: How important is eating organic?

JW: The most important thing is to eat fruits and vegetables, whether they are organic or not. I’m really concerned that focusing too much on organic will decrease the amount of produce kids eat, which is far more harmful. The produce grown in this country has tighter regulations around pesticides than many countries, so most importantly, choose produce grown locally if possible and, if buying organic is important to you, focus on the ones that have thin skins because these are likely to have more pesticide exposure. For example, apples, strawberries, grapes, celery, spinach, and cucumbers would be more important to buy organic than bananas, watermelon, green beans and cantaloupe. I have a list in my book, and the Environmental Working Group website also lists them (www.ewg.org).

AM: You have a section in each chapter called “Your Game Plan.” What is that about?

JW: My thinking behind this was to help moms take what they’ve just read to the next step, which is to decide on a few specific “action steps” to start with their families. I give some examples to help get moms thinking about what changes they want to make, for instance, in trying to get the kids to eat more fruits and vegetables, I suggest they commit to “serve fruit at all 3 meals” or “serve fruit as the afternoon snack.” Another commitment related to healthy snacks would be, “I will buy cookies with no more than five grams of fat” or “We will try snacks from the Healthy Snacks List.”

AM: Give us a Game Plan for the New Year. What are some quick and easy changes we can make in our children’s diet, as a resolution to better eating?

JW: I suggest moms think about what they want to see improve this year in their kids’ eating habits or what they are buying at the grocery store. Next, choose and write down one or two “action steps.” And finally, think about the specifics of how you will make that Game Plan work. For example:

I will decrease the sweet drinks my kids consume.

The Specifics or “How To” might be:

1. I will serve milk or water instead of juice at meals.

2. I will allow soda no more than once a week.

3. I will limit juice to a ½ cup serving and no more than two days per week.

AM: What are healthy snacks Moms should have on hand?

JW: Some great snacks for the cupboard are almonds and other nuts, dried fruit, low sugar cereals, and whole grain crackers. Snacks for the refrigerator should include yogurt, cheese sticks, fresh fruit, and fruit cups. It really helps to have fresh fruit already washed and cut to make it easy for kids to “grab and go.”

AM: What about school lunch vs. packing a lunch from home?

JW: To buy or not to buy school lunch depends on the school district. Fifty-six percent of Nutrition Experts said they buy school lunch for their children one day per week or less. If the school lunches at your school are not very healthy, then I recommend once a week, which allows the child to participate and gives Mom a break from making lunch while still having peace of mind that most of the meals her child eats are healthy.

One of my three boys took the same lunch (peanut butter sandwich and dried mango) to school EVERY DAY for the entire year in 2^nd grade. I’ve had moms tell me what a relief it was to read that story in my book, because they worried about their child not getting enough variety. I believe what’s most important is that kids are getting refueled for the afternoon, so they can focus academically, and if packing the same lunch means they will actually eat it, then that’s a win! Moms can then focus on getting a variety of foods at other meals and snacks without creating a battle over lunch.

AM: Dinner is such a challenging meal. What do Nutrition Experts do?

JW: Yes, I agree dinner is challenging in many ways. And although I care very much about healthy eating and teaching my kids about being healthy, I really don’t like to cook. Every Mom can relate to the kids asking, “Mom, what’s for dinner?” Certainly my kids do! Then about 30 minutes later, I get the next question: “When will dinner be ready?” That’s code for “I’m starving and want it now.” After a full day, along with after school activities and homework, that’s a lot of pressure, so I consider myself a “cook to feed” kind of mom. Nothing fancy, just get food on the table quickly, and yet still keep it healthy.

Based on the responses from 400 MOMS about the quick, healthy dinners they fix, I’m not alone. The #1 quick and healthy dinner was pasta and #2 was sandwiches. That one surprised me a little, but it makes sense.Here’s why: My #1 tip to moms when it comes to dinner is visualizing The Healthy Plate: half of the plate grains and protein and the other half of the plate fruits and vegetables. A sandwich takes care of the grains and protein portion of the plate, and then you can cut up an apple, add a handful of baby carrots and a glass of nonfat or 1% milk and you’ve got a healthy plate. You can do the same with one of the quick recipes in 400 MOMS. The entrée takes care of the grains and protein half of the plate, so all you have to do is add a fruit or vegetable and milk, and you’re done.

AM: I know a big struggle for parents is getting kids to eat their vegetables. What do you suggest?

JW: In my book I have 37 ideas that the 400 Moms suggest to help other moms get their kids to eat vegetables. A few of my favorites that Nutrition Experts suggest are:

1. Serve vegetables when kids are hungriest: right after school or right before dinner, while making dinner. I use this strategy myself. Before cooking dinner, I prepare the fruit and vegetable so it’s already on the plate. That way when my boys start hovering around the kitchen, waiting for dinner to be ready, they will often snack on what’s already on their plate.

2. Offer two options. Ask your child, “Do you want broccoli or carrots with dinner?” The child has some choice, which increases the odds they’ll eat some of it. If, however, the child says, “I don’t want either of them,” then I get to decide. Pretty quickly they realize they would rather make the choice.

3. Blend them in. Add vegetables to omelets, soups, pasta sauce, stews, and casseroles.

4. “It’s what we do.” Many Nutrition Experts said that vegetables are always served and that Mom and Dad eat them too. It’s just a normal part of the meal and kids are used to it, so there’s no room for complaining or unnecessary drama.

I do have some Words of Caution, though, on the subject of vegetables:

Don’t insist your child “Clean Your Plate” or eat all the vegetables served.
Avoid power struggles about food and meals. Mealtime should be as pleasant and relaxed as possible.
Mom’s job is to provide the fruit and vegetable; Child’s job is to decide how much to eat.
Mom job is to model healthy eating.

AM: Let’s talk about childhood obesity.

JW: It’s a major problem that has really serious long-term consequences. For the first time in our history, this generation is expected to have a shorter lifespan than their parents. The reason is that obesity leads to many medical complications. For the first time ever, young teens are developing high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol that used to only be seen in adults, and this has the potential to significantly shorten their lives. If there’s one strategy I can suggest to begin reversing this trend, it is to stop sweet drinks of all kinds—not just soda, but sweet teas, juice drinks, coffee drinks, sports drinks, etc. When you look at the data since 1970, there is a striking correlation between obesity, sweet drinks and milk intake. In 1970, obesity in kids was at 5% and soda intake was 6.5 oz./day on average; in 2010 obesity in kids had tripled to 17% and soda consumption had quadrupled to 24 oz./day. That’s just soda. If we add in all sweet drinks that kids consume, then the amount they’re drinking is much, much higher. And these statistics only apply to obesity; if we combine overweight and obese kids, 34% (one in three kids), are overweight or obese.

It’s also important to look at what has happened to milk intake since 1970. Kids are drinking half as much milk now compared to 1970. Sweet drinks are pushing out milk, which is really alarming because kids are getting liquid sugar in place of really important nutrients, such as protein, calcium, vitamin D and potassium. This will have a major impact on their bones as they become adults.

AM: What advice do you have for picky eaters?

JW: The 400 Moms had many great ideas, but two that stand out for me are:

#1: Try, Try Again!

My oldest always loved to try new foods; my middle son would look at a new food and decide he didn’t like it. My youngest was somewhere in between. However, I would periodically keep trying vegetables and other foods they didn’t like because kids’ taste preferences change, and if you stop serving it, they never have an opportunity to discover they like it later.

It’s also important to avoid drama when using this strategy. The goal is to casually keep trying foods, minimizing the attention given, and oftentimes, kids will eventually come around to eating a wider variety of foods.

Moms need to remind themselves that their job is to model what a healthy plate looks like. That way the child has the skills and knowledge to make healthy choices as they get older, when he or she decides it’s important. An example of this was a former neighbor’s son. He didn’t like vegetables as a child, but his parents always served them, and his parents ate them. It wasn’t until after college that he started eating them regularly and paying closer attention to his diet because his body was changing, and it became important to him.

#2: The Bite Rule

Nutrition experts had several variations about how they implemented this strategy. The idea is to ask your child to try one bite, two bites or three bites, and then thank her for trying it, even if she didn’t like it. This strategy was very helpful with one of my boys who would look at a food and decide he didn’t like it. I would ask him to try it and if he said, “yuk,” then I would say, “Thanks for trying it!” The good news is, he also learned there were foods he didn’t think he would like that he ended up liking because he tried one bite. It avoids a battle at the dinner table yet gradually expands the variety kids will eat.

AM: Is fast food ever ok?

JW: In my opinion, once a week is not going to cause any health or nutritional problems. Eighty percent of the 400 Moms serve fast food once or less per week. The problem is, children are eating meals out four times per week on average. That’s a real problem! It adds up to too much sugar, fat, and calories and not enough fruits, vegetables, milk, fiber, vitamins, and minerals.

I know families are busy and after-school schedules can be crazy. I’ve been there too! But there are many ways to get a quick meal on the table. It takes a little grocery planning and having some quick options in the freezer, but it’s definitely doable. For example, while frozen chicken nuggets are baking, you can steam some broccoli or make a basic salad, wash some grapes and pour a glass of milk. That’s a healthy, balanced meal in 20 minutes, with nothing fried and no added sugar.

AM: What’s some of the best advice Nutrition Experts gave?

JW: There are so many great suggestions, strategies and ideas, that’s a difficult question. And what works for each family can be different, so having lots of suggestions helps.

I love the idea of giving kids choices. For example, moms can give kids two fruit and vegetable options; you can involve them in deciding which school lunches to choose, and involve them in grocery shopping, cooking, and gardening, when possible. There are many ways to give them choices.

I also love the “It’s What We Do” concept. The whole family, including parents, is served the same healthy plate. It’s all about what’s healthy for our bodies, not about weight.

AM: How would you summarize the book, 400 Moms?

JW: The most important takeaways can be summed up in the acronym: BEST

B: Breakfast everyday

E: Encourage five servings of fruits and vegetables daily

S: Stop sweet drinks and soda

T: Trim down on fast food

I believe moms are the solution to raising healthy kids and reversing childhood obesity. My hope is that 400 MOMS will empower moms to make small changes that can have a big impact on the health of their kids. What a gift to give your child!

400 MOMS is available at Amazon and at www.400Moms.com.

Vietnam to Western Airlines

December 5, 2013 by Robin Fahr Leave a Comment

Within a few years of the end of the Vietnam War, the American public was treated to a series of movies portraying Vietnam veterans in the worst light possible. Starting with The Deer Hunter (1978) and Apocalypse Now (1979), to Platoon (1986), Full Metal Jacket (1987), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), and even Forest Gump (1994), Hollywood depicted Vietnam vets as drug users/dealers, rapists, murderers, deserters, suicidal crazies or just plain stupid. But while the American public was having their opinions formed by Hollywood, little did they know they were flying around the country on commercial airliners with at least one, often two, and sometimes three Vietnam veterans in the cockpit.

In his first book, Vietnam to Western Airlines, Vietnam veteran and Lafayette, CA resident, Bruce Cowee, presents an oral history of the air war in Vietnam, which includes the stories and photographs of 36 pilots who all had one thing in common—after returning from Southeast Asia and separating from the service, they were hired as pilots by Western Airlines. As the chapters begin, Cowee tells his story and introduces us to each pilot, all of them volunteers who served honorably in Southeast Asia and, in most cases, never knew each other until they came home and went to work for Western Airlines. Each of the pilots featured in this book is the “real thing,” their stories spanning a nine-year period from 1964 to 1973, covering every aspect of the Air War in Southeast Asia. These 36 men represent only a small fraction of Vietnam veterans hired as pilots by Western Airlines, with some of their compelling stories having never been heard before, not even by members of their own families…until now.

The stories in Vietnam to Western Airlines include everything from heart pounding, edgeofyourseat combat, to the human-interest and even comic events that often happen in war. Through it all, there is an underlying theme: a group of young men in their 20s, thrust into situations of incredible excitement and danger, given an awesome amount of responsibility, and responding with performances that defy any measure you could come up with to evaluate them, only to return to an unappreciative and often hostile home front. It all makes an annual flight simulator evaluation or an FAA check ride seem pretty ho-hum in comparison.

Cowee was born in Berkeley, California in 1945 and attended Berkeley public schools and the University of California, Berkeley. His road to Vietnam began as an Air Force ROTC cadet, and he still talks about filing a claim for combat pay for his last two years at CAL in the mid-60s! After a year in Vietnam and three years at Travis AFB, California, flying the C141, Cowee separated from active duty on July 1, 1972 and was hired as a pilot by Western Airlines on December 12, 1972. After Western’s merger with Delta Air Lines on April 1, 1987, he flew for an additional 17 years and retired from Delta on June 1, 2004, as a Boeing 757/767 Captain, based in Los Angeles.

Cowee’s flying career began with Vietnam and ended with 9/11, where he departed Boston on a “redeye” to Las Vegas, six hours before the hijackings. Flying New York layovers the whole month of October 2001, the crew could see the eerie dull glow of the fire that still burned at Ground Zero from nearly 100 miles away as they flew at night from Atlanta to LaGuardia. It was described by some as similar to a blast furnace at a steel mill but as Bruce recalls, “it was truly the devil’s work,” and a sight he will never forget.

I got the chance to sit down with Bruce Cowee, an extraordinary man whose healthy exuberance and boyish good looks surprised me. I realized I, too, had bought into the Vietnam veteran stereotypes, and was happy to be set straight on how these young men, no older than my own son, followed the orders of their government, completed the tasks they were sent to do, and, if they were lucky, made it home where their skills and training kept an unbeknownst public safe, 36,000 feet in the air.

ALIVE Magazine: What is Vietnam to Western Airlines about?

Bruce Cowee: The book is real history — living history or oral history, written by those who experienced it. I like the quote, “History is only history if it is accurate, and it is usually best told through the first-person accounts of people who were there.”

AM: What did you hope to accomplish with this book?

BC: I can think of at least five things, and as the time has passed, the importance of this book seems to grow.

The book tells the unvarnished truth of each author’s experience in Vietnam, a particular mission he flew or of his overall mission while he was there. Often it includes his thoughts about the way the war was conducted. The bottom line is that each of these men was a volunteer who served honorably when his country called, and no matter what he might have thought of the war or of the politicians who managed every bit of it from Washington, he was proud of his service.
The book is dedicated to and serves as a tribute to those who served and couldn’t come home to tell their stories.
The book is also a tribute to this particular group of men who came back from Southeast Asia and found themselves together as pilots for Western Airlines. They navigated an unappreciative and often hostile home front and, for the most part, never told their stories or talked about Vietnam except when amongst their closest friends who, more often than not, were fellow veterans.
The book tells the stories of a group that was a fraction of the Vietnam era pilots who came home and went to work for the commercial airlines, living normal, productive lives. It makes a good start at attempting to change the stereotypes of Vietnam veterans as perpetuated by Hollywood and the media. One might think such stereotypes would have changed, but that was not my experience talking to a high school class about Vietnam recently and even more surprisingly, an East Coast radio talk show host who was about my age, who seemed to be stuck in 1969.
The book, certainly unplanned by me, became a vehicle for several of the authors to tell their stories for the first time. I have received several messages of thanks for providing them a forum to tell their stories and the ability to leave that history for their children and grandchildren. The great quote at the end of the 2012 movie, “Memorial Day,” is: “The stories will live forever but only if they are told.”

AM: How did you get started on this project?

BC: I’ve always been a history buff, yet I think it was a bit of a surprise to me when I was hired as a pilot by Western Airlines in December 1972, that my class of 30 was about 90% military pilots, mostly Vietnam veterans, and nobody talked about Vietnam.

When I was assigned to fly out of Western’s San Francisco pilot base in early 1974, as a second officer on the Boeing 737, almost all of the first officers I flew with were Vietnam veterans. Most of them had been hired in hiring cycle of 1968 – 1969 and some had just returned to work after a furlough of over 2 years. A good number of them still flew in military reserve units, and all services and all aircraft types were represented. For me it was like being a “kid in a candy store,” being live at the History Channel before it even existed! I had incredible access to a group of the most interesting men imaginable, and the unique work environment made it perfect for me. We would go out on a three or four day trip together, working in a cockpit where we sat two to three feet away from each other, hour after hour, then often spend time on our layovers together having meals and visiting the local spots of interest. We often spent more time together in a month than we did with our families.

I always tried to bring the conversation around to the military and Vietnam and found that some of the guys were more willing to talk than others. I learned the right questions to ask and became a good listener, so before long I was hearing the most fascinating stories and basically filing them away for some future project that hadn’t taken shape yet.

The experience I had on my return from Vietnam had a huge impact on me and planted a seed that I needed to do something positive and constructive to counter that experience. With my interest in history and my incredible and unique access to this group, I wanted to pay tribute to Vietnam veterans in general and this group specifically, with the common thread that these men all served honorably in Southeast Asia, and for the most part didn’t know each other until they came home and went to work for Western Airlines.

That was what started this project, but it wasn’t until years later, after Western merged with Delta Air Lines, that I got serious about trying to collect these stories and think about putting a book together. As we got to the mid-1990s, a sense of urgency emerged as this group was starting to retire at a pretty rapid rate, so most of the stories were written in that time frame. Collecting the photos was another major project entirely.

AM: How did you want to tell your story?

BC: This book was never intended to be about me. It only gave me an opportunity to tell a pretty interesting story about my experience, a young man who came of age in the 1960s and was faced with the decisions that every draft-eligible 18-year-old faced. The story of growing up in Berkeley, California and being an ROTC cadet at the University of California from 1962 – 1966, entering the service and then returning to Berkeley after Vietnam in May 1969, is a piece of the “living history” that is this book. That part of my story is told in just a part of the Introduction. The book is about the 36 men who wrote their stories (one wrote two stories, hence 37 chapters). I do not claim to speak for them, and I know that their politics are all over the map, but there is one thing for sure — they all served honorably and are very proud of that service.

AM: What do you mean about negative stereotypes of Vietnam veterans?

BC: There is a section in the Epilogue that addresses and corrects a long list of “statistics” and misconceptions about Vietnam veterans. Hollywood got things started right after the Vietnam War ended with a series of movies depicting Vietnam vets in the worst possible way. When I had the opportunity to speak to a high school class about Vietnam a few years ago, I found that old movies are still the source of most of their thoughts about Vietnam vets, and their history books do little more than glorify the 1960s protest movement. This book presents a different and more accurate picture of what the majority of Vietnam veterans did when they came home. They used the GI Bill to go back to school, they went back home and got on with their lives, and in a lot of cases, pilots included, used the training they received in the military to go on to have very successful civilian careers. A number of them, including Colin Powell, Norman Schwarzkopf, John Jumper, Anthony Zinni, and Carl Mundy, stayed in the military, went on to become 4 star generals, and had very successful careers. They passed on the lessons of Vietnam to the next generation of military officers.

AM: What are some of the interesting statistics you learned that we might find surprising?

BC: Vietnam veterans represented 9.7 percent of their generation, and 97% of them were honorably discharged. 91 percent of Vietnam veterans say they’re glad they served, and 74% say they would serve again, even knowing the outcome.

According to a VA study, there is no difference in drug usage between Vietnam veterans and nonVietnam veterans of the same age group, and Vietnam veterans are less likely to be in prison. 85 percent of Vietnam veterans made successful transitions to civilian life.

A common belief is that most Vietnam veterans were drafted. In fact, two thirds of the men who served in Vietnam were volunteers.

Another common belief is that a disproportionate number of African Americans were killed in the Vietnam War. In fact, 86 percent of the men who died in Vietnam were Caucasian, 12.5 percent African American, and 1.5 percent other races. These figures are proportionate to the racial makeup of the country at the time.

It’s commonly believed that the war was fought largely by the poor and uneducated. The fact is that servicemen who went to Vietnam from well-to-do backgrounds had a slightly elevated risk of dying because they were more likely to be pilots or infantry officers. Vietnam veterans were the best-educated forces our nation had ever sent into combat, with 79% having had a high school education or better.

My favorite statistic is about Vietnam “wannabes.” According to the August 2000 census count, there were just over one million Vietnam veterans still living. In the same census, the number of Americans claiming to have served incountry was nearly 14 million! More than 90 percent of those claiming to be Vietnam veterans are not! I find it most interesting that so many want to claim participation in a war we have been told was so unpopular. My recommendation is the same one I gave the English teacher at the high school where I spoke: Ask to see a DD Form 214, and that should settle the issue.

AM: Are you bitter about the treatment you received upon returning from Vietnam?

BC: Bitter is not the proper word, as I have never felt bitterness. I am only speaking for myself when answering this question, because I would never presume to speak for anyone else in this book.

I am certainly disappointed, and I think the word “annoyed” would be better to describe how I feel when I hear the old stereotypes passed along as if they are the truth. When I came home, I still had close to three years left to serve in the Air Force, so I went on and spent those first years back in the company of men with similar backgrounds. Then at Western Airlines, I was also in an environment surrounded by men with similar experiences and backgrounds, and although it wasn’t talked about much, it was right under the surface.

I truly felt bad about the incredible travesty that took place at the Oakland Army Terminal on almost a daily basis back in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Army troops who were returning from Vietnam flew into Travis AFB and were taken by bus to the Oakland Army Terminal where those separating from the service out-processed and walked out the front gate as civilians. Many were either draftees or those who had enlisted for two years and were probably an average age of 20. About 24 hours out of Vietnam, they faced the mobs of protesters, glorified in today’s history books, who threw tomatoes and rotten fruit at the buses and then made them walk a gauntlet as they headed for buses to the Oakland or San Francisco airport and a flight home. Travesty is probably not an adequate word to describe this, but if you’re looking for reasons why a lot of Vietnam veterans have never talked about their war experience, you don’t have to look far.

AM: What has been the response to Vietnam to Western Airlines from the pilots who’ve shared their stories?

BC: It’s been pretty amazing. The overwhelming thought that has been expressed is a big “thank you, for letting us tell our stories, and “congratulations” for having the perseverance to see this project through to the end and for making the commitment to do it in a first class manner, in a beautiful book they will be proud to pass along to their children and grandchildren.

It has been a pretty emotional time, as I have had several of the authors tell me that they never would have put their stories in writing or bothered to search for their photos and put them together in this way. As a general rule, this is one of the most private groups of men when it comes to sharing their Vietnam experience, and I know from working with them that they seldom, if ever, talked about Vietnam over the years.

I have been told by four of the authors that they never would have told their stories if I hadn’t approached them, and they told me they wouldn’t have done it for anyone else. That is probably the most humbling part of this whole experience. There were several who had such compelling and “life changing” experiences in Vietnam, and those stories to tell, that they were just waiting for the right “vehicle” to come along and someone they could trust not to misuse their stories. One friend in particular looked me in the eye and said he thought long and hard about telling his story and only decided to do it because I was his friend and he trusted me to “do this right.” More than one told me they would write something, then told me they sat down to write and couldn’t do it, so I ended up interviewing them, taking notes, writing the story and then sending it back and forth several times until they were happy with the result. I suppose that is why I use the words “honored and humbled” more than once in the Preface and Introduction to the book. It has been a tremendous responsibility to be entrusted with these stories and I couldn’t be happier that the book is finally in print.

Probably the most incredible reaction came from one author in particular who told me he had never told his story and was quite surprised that I even knew about it when I approached him, as he couldn’t figure out who could have known and given me his name. He had told his wife a brief version but never told his children and they had never seen his photos, which are on display for the first time. Another universal truth that emerged: every author who received a decoration or award for a particular mission never mentioned it in his story. It was only my asking about it that got them to tell that part of the story. Not wanting to appear to be bragging or engaging in self-promotion was the common denominator, and there are several stories where decorations should have been and most likely were involved but were not mentioned. When I asked, I was told that it wasn’t important.

The most poignant message came in an email we received on the website when a very senior, retired Western Airlines Captain sent the following: he was hired in the early 1960s, several years before the first Vietnam veterans were hired by Western. He said as he looked down the chapter index that he had worked with most of them over the years, and he had never heard one of them talk about Vietnam. He was anxious to read the book and hear their stories for the first time. That says it all about this group.

For more information, including media interviews and book orders, visit www.VietnamToWesternAirlines.com.

Mermaid Sails the Bay by Greg Trybull

September 2, 2013 by Robin Fahr Leave a Comment

The wind suddenly backed the staysail and forced the bow of Alma further to port. Bill tried to bring her head into the wind, but it was impossible without steerageway. At that moment, Ed finally loosened the sheet and untied it from the cleat. As the line slipped through his fingers he looked back around and saw the Commodore moving across the foredeck. “WATCH OUT,” Ed screamed, as the staysail flopped over.

The sail and boom hit Father square on the chest and launched him backward across the foredeck. “Dad?” Ed said as he crawled over to the Commodore. He had to keep low with the boom of the sail swinging uncontrollably overhead. “Dad?” Ed touched his father’s face.

The Commodore opened his eyes, but they seemed vacant. “Uhh…” Dad groaned. A moment later, he began to focus on his son.

“Dad! Are you okay?”

The Commodore looked at the sail, flapping overhead with the sound of a freight train. He sat partway up for a moment, and then dropped back to the deck. Their eyes met. Dad swallowed once, hard. He thought about how his sons had been returned to the ark in disgrace, and that having them work on the scow was supposed to be punishment. But his oldest would have to face his own trial of manhood right now; there was no other choice.

“Get her… moving,” the Commodore said in a weak, halting voice. He looked at his son with a hollow stare, “You are in charge…” His voice trailed off. “Just keep her… moving.”

Ed hesitated for a moment; there was no way he could leave his father like this. “Dad?”

“Alma comes first,” Dad ordered. “Go to zee helm.”

It’s springtime in 1908, the beginning of the 20^th Century. San Francisco is on the rebound from the Great Quake of 1906, and amazing advances such as electricity, automobiles, and radio are emerging while, at the same time, spelling the doom of the graceful sailing ships that were the driving force of economic progress for centuries. Brothers Ed (16), Bill (14), and Ted (12) are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime when their father buys them a 16-foot Whitehall boat, which they christen Mermaid, and sets them loose on San Francisco Bay. That summer, they encounter Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet; end up the target of pirates who shoot rotten fruit for cannonballs; surmount the rough seas, save the lives of new friends; and deal with the most daunting challenge of all – learning to get along.

And so begins the tale of Mermaid Sails the Bay, by Bay Area author Greg Trybull, whose own father bought a sailboat for the family when Greg was 12. Young Trybull took to the nautical lifestyle like a fish to water, spending his teenage years (the 1970’s) sailing San Francisco Bay, where the idea for this story first took shape.

ALIVE: How would you describe Mermaid Sails the Bay?

Greg Trybull: Mermaid Sails the Bay is a historical fiction adventure that will connect today’s reader with the beginning of the twentieth century. There are numerous sites in the book, including a number with images, which can be visited today.

A: Why did you choose the beginning of the 20th Century as the temporal setting for your book?

GT: This was a transitional period in ship propulsion; sail was still economical for bulk cargos, but coal steamers had taken over much of the shipping industry, due to their regular arrival and departure times. The use of fuel oil was also rising; so all these different types of ships crowded the Bay and waterfront in every picture I’ve looked at.

A: What inspired you to write this story?

GT: My father bought a sailboat in the mid-1970’s. I was the crewman who would run up forward whenever a line hung-up or some deck-hand job needed to be done. Around that time, my aunt in Germany sent me a book titled Swallows and Amazons. It’s a fictional adventure about kids who sail a small boat on a lake in England. Arthur Ransome wrote a number of stories about these characters–I believe there are 13 or14 in the series. I was hooked – for years – and must have read each of those books at least a dozen times.

A: In your book, you write with amazing detail about San Francisco and the Bay as it was in 1908. How much of Mermaid Sails the Bay is based on actual historical events and how much is fictional?

GT: Chapters 2 and 3 describe actual historical events – the opening of the Belvedere Drawbridge to administer the exodus of the arks in the lagoon, which today marks Opening Day on the Bay, and the arrival of Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet on May 6^th. The fictional adventure never stops once the boys sail for an island in Chapter 4. But Mare Island, the Shortline to Paradise, and the Tavern at Tamalpais are all straight from the history books. Having the U.S. Army in Yosemite is historical fact, but it dropped straight into the plot like a piece of a puzzle.

A: Where did you do your research?

GT: The J. Porter Shaw Maritime Library in San Francisco. I had a great amount of help from the good people who work there. This was where I learned about the primary ships at Hyde Street – Star of Alaska (ex. Balclutha) is a square-rigged windjammer; Eureka (called Ukiah in the time of the story) is a double-ended ferry boat; C.A. Thayer is a “doghole” lumber schooner; plus Hercules and her sister ship were the first sea-going tugs to operate from the Bay (using fuel oil).

A: Tell us the story of Drake’s Plaque?

GT: It is said that the explorer Francis Drake left a plaque of brass somewhere on the shore of Drake’s Bay, to claim all this land for the queen. Around 1936 a plaque was “found” and declared authentic before a rigorous scientific study could be performed. After forty years the plaque was declared a forgery, apparently a good-natured student’s joke that went awry.

A: As a teenage boy sailing the Bay with your family in the 1970’s, how much of this book is autobiographical?

GT: The Dunking Derby is from my time. It’s a Paradise Harbor tradition – sinking someone else’s small-boat on the 4^th of July. Plus the scene of sailing in heavy weather was real. We once anchored out overnight in Clipper Cove at Treasure Island. The wind was howling the next day, so we waited a few hours in the hope that it would ease some. But it was summertime – on the Bay that means the wind gets even stronger in the afternoon. So at noon we had no choice but to set out North, straight into the teeth of a near gale. The waves were not enormous, being on the Bay, but every one of them seemed to aim right for us. It should have been a three-hour tour to get home to Paradise Harbor. Near the halfway mark I looked at the distant land with a cringe, because I knew the sun would go down before we could make it home. Then another wave smashed us, throwing the bow backwards with a plume of icy spray for our faces. Something made me peak into the cabin – I gasped at the sight of a puddle sloshing about on the floorboards. “There’s water in the cabin!” I screamed to my dad as I instinctively moved to take the wheel from him. He launched himself down the companionway and quickly found that the knot-meter had been dislodged from below the waterline. That was one of the scariest moments of my life – knowing the Bay was coming in, and the land was so far away.

A: Tell me about the brothers in the book. What makes them such sympathetic, likeable characters?

GT: I don’t know… you’ll have to tell me! I originally identified most with the middle brother, Bill. You must understand that there was no real plot when I started, just an outline about places to go. What drew this idea of a sailing adventure into a complete story was Cap’n Scurvy – or to be more accurate, it was the exchange between Ted and his pirate captain. I can tell you that I did not have an imaginary friend when I was young. I just dreamed about a ship…

A: Was your own father similar to the brothers’ father, the Commodore?

GT: Well… perhaps in small portions. My dad did buy us an El Toro; it’s an eight-foot pram with a sail. During the first moon landing, Dad built us a rocket with scraps from the houses going up all around us. It even had an odometer – that rocket could go 30 mph! It was the talk of the whole neighborhood.

A: In the excerpt above, the boys have to save the Commodore. Was that ever your experience?

GT: It’s not that I ever had to physically save my dad; my contribution was always comments like “We’re too close,” or “We’re too close, start the engine.” My dad would laugh and call me chicken-of-the-sea, until the time we were in Martinez after bringing the boat up for a trip to the Delta. My dad decided to dry the spinnaker (a parachute sail for downwind runs) at the boat, by using a special technique that would spill the wind out of it. But, Martinez is basically a funnel, where all the wind from the ocean pours into the central valley once the land heats up, so I reasoned, pleaded, and then begged to take the sail home for a wash and dry. Of course, Dad thought I was just being C-O-T-S, so he washed the sail and then hung it upside down, on the theory that the wind would spill, because the clews (corners) of the sail were tied together. This theory is true, provided there’s little to light wind. But we were in Martinez, in the afternoon, with the wind at small craft force (15 KPH, that’s Knots Per Hour, slightly more than MPH).

All was well for about five minutes. Then the sail began to fill and started yanking the boat in a forceful motion. My father said, “I guess you were right,” and we proceeded to drop sail. However, this was a parachute sail, that was only attached to the boat with lines, so as I let the halyard out (the line on the mast), my dad couldn’t pull the rest of it to the deck because the wind was so strong. The sail moved further away from the mast, and higher too, and started acting like a kite and pulling the boat away from the dock. I yelled, “I’m letting go,” and I released the halyard, in the hope that the sail would collapse and fall into the water. Having a clean, dry sail didn’t matter anymore; the boat was getting pounded against the dock. “We gotta cut the line,” I yelled. Dad still had hold of the sail’s sheets, so he nodded, and I ran below for the knife. I sawed on the line carefully, because I knew it would whip around the winch and tear any flesh that was in the way when it let go. Thankfully I held my face away, because when it let go I felt the end whip right past my cheek. I would have half a face these days, if I’d been any closer. Unfortunately, the halyard was part wire and part rope, and the splice caught in the block at the top of the mast. At that point the sail was whipping overhead a good fifty feet above the mast – and there was nothing we could do about it.

Thankfully, the block disintegrated under the load, the sail broke free, floated over the next pier, and slowly drifted into the water. We recovered the sail, took it home and tended it the exact way I, formerly known as chicken-of-the-sea, had suggested.

A: How would you classify Mermaid Sails the Bay, and who is your target audience?

GT: It’s been described by my editor as a Young-Adult novel, but I feel that adventurous folks of all ages will be drawn to the story. A few people have mentioned that they’d like to see it on the suggested reading list for California high school students, since it offers so many authentic references to the history of our unique Bay Area.

A: Mermaid Sails the Bay is your first novel, and already it’s receiving high acclaim. What’s next?

GT: Perhaps a sequel – 1914 was a good year on the Bay – and some tales about Cap’n Scurvy. But I’ve already started something completely different, a series of short stories about… me.

Mermaid Sails the Bay is a wonderfully inviting and excruciatingly researched and accurate historical adventure, a tale of life in the Bay Area during a time of grand opportunity and no-holds-barred stomping into a future of promise. Young adults, and those among us no matter how old who aspire for the trappings of their youth, will laugh and cry as they pull for these brothers and live vicariously through their coming-of-age journey.

Beautifully written and illustrated, Mermaid Sails the Bay is ideal for young adults with a thirst for adventure and a desire to know more about the history of the Bay Area — a perfect selection for local schools to include on their recommended reading lists.

Mermaid Sails the Bay is available at Amazon (www.amazon.com/dp/1475289979). To find out more, visit www.MermaidSailsTheBay.com.

Illustrated by Seval Sensoy

Crazy Razor: A Book Review

August 1, 2013 by Robin Fahr Leave a Comment

“Let me ask you something, Coburn. Some young man in the north says goodbye to his family, knowing he’ll probably never see them again. Then he walks down the Ho Chi Minh trail carrying a couple of mortar rounds or B-40s with ten of his comrades. By the time he gets to this place, maybe eight of his friends are dead because of malaria or B-52s.

This young man comes down here and sits on the riverbank waiting for one of those patrol boats to go by. He sits there with dysentery and no food and finally he sees one of those boats and shoots off his B-40. And misses. The patrol boat calls in an air strike and kills him. And while he’s dying, another ten men say goodbye to their family and march down the trail.”

“So what?” asked Coburn.

“In the south they take a young man, feed him well, put him in good uniforms, give him boots and an M-16 and train him and pay him. And then he goes to war in a helicopter, jumps out and someone shoots at him. What’s he do? He throws away his rifle, throws off his helmet and runs away. So, Coburn, who do you think will win this war?”

And so begins the story of Crazy Razor: A Novel of the Vietnam War, written by decorated combat veteran and Oakland resident, Kenneth Levin. A self-proclaimed student of the war, whose own experiences in Vietnam are combined with the personal interviews of North Vietnamese veterans, Levin deftly explores the nature of man amidst the chaos and horror of war. And while the main character is no prince charming, Crazy Razor demonstrates with stark clarity that the real villain in war is war itself.

I sat down with Levin under the gnarly oak tree in his storybook garden, the sound of his two-year-old granddaughter’s laughter emanating from inside the picture-perfect house he shares with his ever-patient wife of 37 years, Eileen. It surprised me. This seemingly tough guy, this man’s man, shot twice in Vietnam and blinded by an infection he suffered after being dumped in the water, is really just an old softie, wrapped around the finger of an adorable, blonde cherub who has no idea what Grandpa has seen:

ALIVE) In your book, you write with amazing detail about the North Vietnamese soldiers and their side of the Vietnam War. You must have done a lot of research. Or was that a product of your imagination?

KENNETH LEVIN) Both. I wanted the book to be as credible, accurate and realistic as possible. Details of the war from the South Vietnamese and American perspective were readily available, often from my own experience, but not so the details of the north and the National Liberation Front (VC) fighters in the south. When I found I could not get these details from books, libraries, or the web, and my letters to the museums and ministries in Vietnam went unanswered, I had to improvise. Guess. Imagine. Otherwise, I’d have never been able to finish the book. When reviewing the first draft, I decided I needed to fact check my book, to verify that my improvisations were realistic and made sense. So I went to Vietnam, toured the areas I describe in the book, and interviewed combat veterans of the People’s Army and the National Liberation Front. Much to my surprise, I found that my guesses about the other fellows’ lives were pretty accurate.

ALIVE) Your war ended over forty years before you started writing Crazy Razor? Why wait so long?

KENNETH LEVIN) I wanted to write the book, or at least a book, after reading Nicholas Monsarratt’s The Cruel Sea, a wonderful novel based on a Royal Navy officer’s experience during World War II. That was a few years after I returned from Vietnam. But then kids, mortgage, and a job all got in the way. Finally, in 2009, I looked around me and said that if I didn’t write the book now, I never would. So I retired, reached in the bucket, and pulled out the list. Number one was the book.

A) In your book you describe a conversation between an American and a Cambodian mercenary during a night ambush operation that ended tragically. Did that really happen?

KL) That story is based on a conversation I had with a Cambodian mercenary while sitting on a muddy riverbank waiting for the enemy tax collector’s sampan to come into our ambush. That was the first time I questioned what in the hell I was doing in Vietnam and what in the hell was my country doing in Vietnam. For the sake of the story telling, the scene in the book ends differently than what happened on that riverbank. Today we have drones controlled by people sitting thousands of miles away from their targets, while someone, I don’t know where, tells them to shoot or not. In the story, the American is the person who says to shoot or not. And both the character in the story and I had the counsel of a wiser man, the mercenary.

A) I understand your next book has a story in it about the life of a Vietnamese veteran that his daughter told you. How did that come about?

KL) When I was in Hanoi in 2012, I was trying to find People’s Army combat veterans to interview. I had a list of some two dozen questions to ask them. Everything from what did you wear on your feet to did you think you’d survive the war? A young woman in the hotel where I was staying volunteered that her father was a vet and she would be glad to ask him the questions. So I gave her a copy and my email address and went on my travels. About a month after I returned to Oakland, I received an email from her with a lengthy attachment. There were all the answers to my questions and much more. I realized here was a story that needed telling. After nearly a year of email exchanges with the daughter, I had the man’s life story. From the child of a farmer, to a soldier, to a POW, to struggling veteran trying to build a life for his wife and children, to a smiling grandfather. His daughter is a gifted storyteller so together we wrote the short story. But other than the names that she insisted be changed, the story is not fiction. It is true.

A) How would you describe Crazy Razor? What kind of a book is it?

KL) I call it an anti-war novel, as is All Quiet on the Western Front or Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War. The problem is that when it comes to publishing, there is no such formal category called “anti-war novel.” So it is officially a war story or historical fiction. But Crazy Razor is really an anti-war novel.

A) For want of a better word, Crazy Razor ends with a surprising twist that may upset the average reader. Why did you do that?

KL) There is no happily-ever-after ending to a war. If they live, they survive. Real life is not bundled up nicely with no strings hanging out. People are disturbed, life has been disrupted and justice isn’t always meted out. I purposely wanted the reader to feel unsettled and disturbed at watching a vainglorious narcissist in close proximity to a righteous murderer. There is no illusion about the goodness of the human heart. I paint an ugly picture, and that can be disturbing. But that is what I meant to do. War is a terrible thing.

A) You were a naval officer who advised the South Vietnamese Navy in 1968 and 1969. One of your main characters is just that. Is this book autobiographical?

KL) That is the most common question I’ve been asked by readers of Crazy Razor. The book is a novel and by definition fiction. But it is also purposely realistic and detailed. In fact, some have criticized the book for too much detail and realism. In order to achieve the realism, I did a lot of research, but I also relied as much on my own experiences and memories. So in that respect, there’s a whole lot of me in the book. But I would not call it autobiographical. At least I hope not, given the character you mention. He’s not a very nice guy.

A) Tell me about the two women in the book, the language instructor and the intelligence analyst. They’re similar in some ways but so different in others. Why these two women?

KL) Both women are Vietnamese, beautiful, intelligent, and sensuous. But one is selfish, calculating and cold. The other is warm, caring and sacrificing. One is dedicated to herself. The other is dedicated to lofty ideals and is also a traitor to her country. I used them to add a touch of soft femininity to a hard environment. And I used them as symbols, as vehicles—one of South Vietnam, the other of the north.

A) What are your next writing projects?

KL) My bucket list is getting longer and longer with stories I want to tell. My next project is a collection of short stories that is, hopefully, in its final drafts. Crazy Razor is a big book, and it would have been even bigger, but I had to stop somewhere. So the things I wanted to write about, but did not, I put together and made sausage. The next book is a collection of sausage links – short stories — some are grim, some are humorous. And some address the question that once the war is over, what does a person do with all these memories? How can one live with oneself after witnessing and committing what by any standards are atrocities? The project after that one goes off to the publisher is a book based on my late brother’s diary that he kept while an army surgeon in Vietnam during 1965 and 1966. That one will be nonfiction.

A) In your author’s notes at the beginning of Crazy Razor you state that the only villain is the war itself. But at least one of your central characters appears to be quite villainous. How could you say there are no villains?

KL) I’m sticking by my notes. The two characters are men who, if they never went to war, would probably live quiet and lawful lives—one as an academic in a university in Hanoi, the other as a businessman in Hartford or St. Louis. One may be sociopathic but never put in an environment that allows that to come out. But both men do go to war and are put into an environment that allows them to commit heinous and vicious acts of violence. Both do villainous things. But neither would have if not in war. In The Cruel Sea, Monsarratt says that the only villain in the Atlantic in World War II was the sea itself. My feelings that war, not the men fighting it, is the villain are similar to his. A psychologist wrote me and said, “Altogether, I found it a profound book about the motives we use to justify our actions, the ugliness of war and the latitude it gives people to be at their very worst.”

A)Who’s your target audience for this book?

KL) When asked that question by the publishers, I thought for a bit and decided that since Crazy Razor was classified as a war story, the target was probably males over 50. But much to my surprise, women seem to like the book. Several have said that they avoid war stories but did read mine and enjoyed it. I don’t know if “enjoy” can be applied to a book of the horrors of war.

A) How did you come up with the title “Crazy Razor?”

KL) My call sign when I was in-country was Crazy Racer. With a “cer,” instead of a “zor.” It was a little like Alfred Hitchcock popping up in one of his movies for a few seconds.

A) How cathartic was it for you to write this story? Did you get rid of some of your demons for good?

KL) I certainly didn’t write the book for catharsis, but I think it was certainly personally cathartic for me. No, I did not get rid of any demons. But I did learn to live with the memories.

A) Once the war is over, what does a soldier do with all those memories? How can one live with oneself after committing all those atrocities?

KL) I don’t know. Do we manipulate our code of ethics according to the context? Much smarter people than I will have to answer these questions. I’m sure many psychologists at the VA are immersed in this serious and knotty question.

A) You were wounded twice, lost your vision and contracted an Agent Orange connected cancer. Why aren’t you bitter?

KL) No one can be bitter with the family I have, the friends I have and the life I have. I’m doing what I want to do. And when I feel like taking a nap, I just lie down and take one. Beat that if you can.

Kenneth Levin will be at Towne Center Books, 555 Main Street in Pleasanton, CA on Wednesday, August 21 at 7:00 pm. Crazy Razor is also available at Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com.