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trayed are drafted soldiers, enlisted
men, and military career men; there
combat soldiers, supply soldiers,
militant activists, and ex-students.
The book's style is striking in that no
untasseled academician tells you his
selective version of Who's Who Among
j Vietnam Veterans and How They
Lived. Instead, the men tell you their
stories themselves, in their own per-A}. H t y ft
sonal style, which sometimes is half-
literate ghetto and military slang. b Bk,
Terry admirable captures each man's
style and lets each of them tell it as he
pleases, and braids their stories with
Bloods their backgrounds, emotions, and
By Wallace Terry opinions.
Random House For instance, one veteran wanders in
his story to talk about the Vietnam War
Memorial in Washington, D.C.: "(The
By Andy Weine memorial) makes me think they
ashamed of what we did ... A plane
flying over it can't see nothin' but a hole
HEEIGHTIES erupted with a in the ground."
T plethora of literature on Vietnam, While styles and experiences differ,
from detailed historical studies to common threads unite the stories.
political biographies to drugstore fic- Almost all the men shared the same
tion teeming with gory adventure. Yet motivation for joining the military or
the literary abundance left a gap in the had similar expectations on being draf- n
horrid story of the war of our time - ted. They thought the military would be
the tale of the black soldier went untold. less racist and therefore offer more op-
Experiences of minorities, par- portunity than civilian life.
ticularly blacks, form what author Arthur Voodley, a combat
Wallace Terry calls "the missing pages paratrooper, says joing the army was
of the American experience." "the only way I could possibly make it
That gap is especially unjust con- out of the ghetto..."
sidering that the number of blacks in Sergeant Robert Daniels says, "I
the military constituted a greater decided to enlist 'cause it didn't seemw
proportion than in the U.S. population as like I was gettin' anywhere."
a whole. For that reason, Wallce Many found the service as oppressive
Terry's Bloods should be required as the homes they were escaping.
reading for anyone interested in under- Robert Holcomb says, "A few of us
standing the war. black soldiers were able to get into
"Bloods" are what blacks in the war positions where we could have somet
called themselves. In the book by this freedom, make our lives a little better
name, Terry chronicles the stories of even though we were in a war that we
twenty black men having a wide didn't really believe in. But most blacks
variety of experiences and backgroun- couldn't, because they didn't have the unequal treatment "It seemed like soldiers donned in Klu Klux Klan
ds. Several came from urban ghettoes skills. So they were put in the jobs that more blacks in the field than in the costumes.
such as Chicago's South Side or were the most dangerous, the hardest, rear," says one veteran. Disillusioned and disappointed, many
Lower East Baltimore; others grew up or just the most undesirable." Others relate being thrown in jail for black soldiers lost faith in the "white
in isolated rural areas of Virginia, Every portrait powerfully relates minor infractions, not receiving earned man's war." Some men became
Louisiana, or Alabama. The men por- some instance of scapegoating or promotion, and tolerating white rebellious and revolutionary, such as
two veterans who joined the Black Pan-
thers when they came home.
"I had left one war and came back
and got into another one," says
Reginald Edwards. "Most of the Pan-
thers then were veterans. We figured if
we had been over in Vietnam fighting
for our country, which at that point
wasn't serving us properly, it was only
proper that we had to go out and fight
for our own cause."
The speakers in Bloods angrily
scrape away the non-racist veneer of
the military image.
The book does not dwell solely in
issues of race, however. Much of each
story describes awful emotions and
gruesome scenes typical to any war.
The reader will also recognize the
agony and anger common to many
Vietnam veterans, regardless of race.
For example, one black veteran ends
his story by saying, "I really feel sued.
I feel manipulated. I feel violated."
The stories strongly hint, though, that
returning black veterans suffered more
intensely than their white counterparts,
* due to racial abuse inflicted at home
and abroad.
The reader of Bloods cannot help
being profoundly moved by these
searing self-portraits, which form an
Vietnam: The legacy remains essential and much needed link in the
chain of literature on the Vietnam war.

C 0 V E
Busmnm ~
behind
By Jeff Bergida
T HEY AREN'T a part of the
campus tour but even the. most
confused freshperson knows where to
find them.
They wou't be listed on your Univer-
sity bill but will be a major expense as
you struggle toward that degree.
On those cold Friday nights in
January, when it seems like there's
nothing to do, somehow you know that
you'll end up settling down for the
evening at one of them.
They are the bars and clubs of Ann
Abor and they provide the foundation of Nectarine Ballroom: New image for a new crowd
the city's entertainment offerings. And even as far out as Briarwood, the and maintenance as two of his major And fo
While many rave about classic films, pre-professional crowd pulls into the expenses. results h
live theater, and concerts, cultural en- spacious Briarwood area bar parking And these utility costs go beyond day- manager
tertainments just don't measure up in lots and gets ready for the night out. to-day expenses. Lines v
the 80s. After all, when was the last But as the owners and operators of Because of the ever-changing around
time you heard somebody say, "Let's these establishments will be the first to market, a club owner cannot afford to Maynard
go out and hit the theaters"? tell you, appearances can be deceiving. stand pat. "We're constantly making to pedes
Going by appearances, one would "What the layperson doesn't take into slight changes. . We're already night.
think that owning a liquor license in account," offers Norm Fultz, manager changing our schedule of what's going Assum
Ann Arbor is equivalent to a permit to of Dooley's, "are the expenses involved on in the future," said Rita Shelide- will the
print money. in maintaining your equipment. I Abel, promotion director of the Nec- other clu
Take a look around on any given would say the return on investment is tarine Ballroom. Doo~ley
Thursday night. On campus, the reasonable, but not staggering." One big question around the local bar of dance
students begin lining up before dinner "I wish it were (an easy road to big scene is, what will the conversion of The location
time. Downtown, adventurous campus money)," adds John Rogers, owner of Second Chance into The Nectarine from the
dwellers are mingling with townies. Good Time Charley's, who cites utilities Ballroom do to the rest of the bar com- figure to
munity. rons. Bu
Priorto its reopening in August, "The Dooley's
Chance" had been known for its live there ha
bands playing mostly top-40 music. The "It's a
club was not popular with the student centage
market, however. Except for an oc- "They s
casional concert by a nationally-known lot of effc
act such as David Johansen or Bow 'l11succet
Wow Wow, Second Chance's format ap- Joe T
pealed more to townspeople - not the Lounge,.
market that management was looking sightful
for. what I c
So the people running Second Chance Tiboni s
went for "a whole new image" accor- 40, the ci
ding to Shelide-Abel. live hu
The live music has been replaced by music is
disc jockeys and the clientele, which sound sy
had not been known as the most ten to the
wholsome in the world, is quite dif- on some
ferent in appearance. While
"The Nectarine Ballroom is a step up behind ti
from the Second Chance," says Shelide- the owne
Abel. "We were looking for a more will achi
prestigious clientele and we will have "I thi
our own style that will attract the public going to
- both the students and the that they
professionals." they wei
By featuring valet parking, a dress older, m
code, and state-of-the-art sound crowd, ni
systems, management is hoping to at- "I don'
tract the highly profitable Greek of damai
w crowd, along with the young urban college
professionals who reside in the city. Chance.
"There's nothing like the Nectarine musicall)
a -' Ballroom in the market," noted Steve
Shelide-Abel, who feels that a half America
y o million dollars worth of renovations change i
will help this latest entry establish itself overwhe
Live entertainment: Bonnie Hayes plays at Joe's in the market.
Weekend/Frida

14- Weeked/Friday; September 21, 1984- -.