The Soldier Factory

"When Ed Salven returned after thirty years to Fort Ord, where he was stationed in the late 1960s, he found a ghost town. Once a bustling military community of more than thirty thousand soldiers, the Sixth Army Infantry Processing Center in northern California sat in silent decay, and he was overwhelmed by recollections of his time there as a draftee. Those memories became the basis for The Soldier Factory, a collection of episodes and meditations on being a part of the US military machine at the height of the Vietnam War." "Salven's reflections, confronting essential questions of war, authority, self-worth, honor, loss, and love, are accompanied by a series of vivid portraits of soldiers. Painted in 1994, the year Fort Ord was closed, by students of California State University Monterey Bay and Monterey Peninsula Community College, the paintings hang as window covers on several abandoned barracks. The portraits honor not only the soldiers portrayed but all soldiers, and pay tribute to the fort's military history." "Veterans and soldiers alike will find this book particularly meaningful, as will anyone seeking to better understand this important period in US history and its impact on those who were trained for war - at Fort Ord or at any of our country's soldier factories."--BOOK JACKET.