War Boys

the long version

"Philippines, 1968. At the height of the war in Vietnam, 14-year-old Charles Barker arrives at the U.S. Naval Station at Subic Bay with his mother and father, a commander in the Navy. Charles, who aspires to attend the Naval Academy, joins the base Explorer Post and, with a group of like-minded new friends, plays "war games" in the virgin rain forest on the base and in the jungle. But when the scouts' games become increasingly realistic and dangerous, Charles and his friends begin to glimpse a side of war they hadn't guessed at, and enemies they hadn't imagined."--BOOK JACKET.