Admiral Dennis Blair, USN: "The Vietnam War literature and cinema are dominated by the angry and the anguished. Bud Cole's book speaks for those who did their duty with dedication and courage, but without illusion. It also should remind leaders who send to war their young men, and now their young women, of its human cost, even for those who are willing to pay it."

General John Allen, USMC: "About the time you think there's no space remaining for another work on the VietNam war, along comes Goin' to Nam a rich and thoroughly engaging historical novel by Captain Bernard "Bud" Cole. From the moment I started Bud's book, I knew I was along for the ride, one where I was painfully reminded of the realities of the human factors of combat, but also of the soaring heights of the best of humanity in war. David Kagan, the protagonist in Bud's narrative, is all of us who've ever gone to war, and the arc of his life and his experiences are at once familiar and meaningful. As a former Commandant of Midshipmen at the Naval Academy, I'd have made this required reading for the midshipmen in their leadership program. In Goin' to Nam, Bud Cole has done us all a great service."

Senior Foreign Service Officer(ret.) Richard Virden: "Bud Cole tells this compelling Vietnam story in the authentic voice of someone who lived it. In convincing and readable style, he takes you back to that time and place to better understand what the war was truly like for the warriors who fought it and grew up in it."