Departure

The complete Green on Green Trilogy of novels is a complex saga of the Viet Nam war era, from the POV of a drafted infantry soldier, Private Michael Landers, very much against the war. By subtle revelations, it melds in with a mythological saga of a tribe of Montagnard people in the Vietnamese Mountains who have never heard of Americans or even Vietnamese...on purpose. A boy and an old man with wizardly powers have been drafted into a war between their gods. In Departure, Landers is due to be shipped out from the Oakland Army Departure Depot, where thousands of soldiers per week are sent to Viet Nam. Only he shows up up on LSD, stating that the war is against all American principles; that he won't go. This becomes a 2-month stand-off between him and the military bureaucracy. Begins with Landers surfing and partying with old friends in San Diego's offbeat Ocean Beach. Soon moves to the San Francisco Bay Area, where, when off the military bases, he wanders the streets of San Francisco with a pair of Viet Nam infantry vets, to delve into this extreme version of "Drugs, sex and rock and roll" versus "the Establishment". He uncovers shady government provocateurs leading the U.C. Berkeley anti-war demonstrations. Closely based on personal experience.