“One of the most powerful novels I've yet read on the Vietnam War. As a veteran of that awful conflict, I was absolutely riveted by the tale of Augie and his buddies and every word rang true.”

West Virginia native and Vietnam War veteran John H. Brown delivers a moving novel in "Augie's War." Protagonist Augustino Lee Cumpton is drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to Vietnam. Augie's memory of fun-filled family days back in West Virginia helps him cope with the tribulations of war and unscrupulous military personnel.

Brown's storytelling will engage you from beginning to end with amusing, gritty and candid dialogue. Various chapters transition from Vietnam to Augie's hometown without skipping a beat. Augie's memories of humorous and heartfelt family moments keeps the war at bay, at least temporarily: Aunt Lia, the "meatball queen," loves bawdy jokes; Uncles Giorgio and Dante, co-owners of the Chestnut Bakery, regale patrons and family with madcap stories..“They could always lift my spirits...,” says Augie.

With a cadre of convivial characters, you'll see why Augie's thoughts drift toward his family. This book also attests to the spirit of brothers-in-arms and the ravages of war.

Brown's vivid writing allows you to witness gripping scenes detailing the carnage from explosions with images you won't forget. Although this novel is about the Vietnam War, it also conveys the message of how family, friends, and those who have your back can sustain a person through desperate times.

John H. Brown is a familiar figure to many West Virginians. He’s the founder of Brown Communications, a public relations firm now headed by his son, Bryan. He’s been a wine and food columnist for more than 30 years. From time to time, he’s written for the Gazette-Mail and the State Journal.

Now, Brown has embarked on a different kind of writing — he’s published a novel, “Augie’s War, nspired by his war-time experiences in Vietnam.

Like Joseph Heller in “Catch 22,” the classic novel about the deadly World War 11 air war, Brown has given readers a novel that makes clear the insanity of war in all its grim and gritty horror. The casualty count in “Augie’s War” is high. Yet, at the same time, Brown’s novel, like Heller’s, includes a lineup of zany characters and a sequence of outlandish happenings sure to have readers chuckling, if not laughing out loud.

“Fifty years ago,” Brown says, “I was drafted into the U.S. Army and a few months later, I was provided an all-expense paid tour of Vietnam (1969-70). When I returned home, I decided that I would write about my experiences. But a family and career took precedence, and I put the idea on the back burner.”

A couple of years back, when Brown decided to retire from his public relations business, his wife and a few friends encouraged him to pen the story he long had dreamed of writing.

Brown says he never harbored any illusions that his novel would be commercially published. “But I knew that finishing the project would be personally rewarding. After all, it was number one on my bucket list of things to do.”

Yes, Brown’s novel is a war story. But it’s much more than that. It’s also about family and coming of age. The novel’s young draftee protagonist — Augustino Lee Cumpton, known as “Augie” — frequently summons up memories of his Italian-American family back home in West Virginia.

Augie’s grandfather, Salvatore Emilio Costanza, worked hard in the coal mines, saved every penny he could and used that savings to open a little business, the Chestnut Baking Co. Everyone in the family, including young Augie, worked at the bakery. Memories of the bakery and its daily parade of colorful customers provide Augie with memories he can retreat into as a way of hanging on to his sanity while he’s trapped in war-torn Vietnam.

For Augie and his battlefield buddies, the awful realities of war are compounded by the incompetent, irrational and sometimes downright criminal behavior of his unit’s superior officers.

Brown excels at painting word portraits of the men who serve alongside Augie. There is “Rooster” Washington, a huge black infantryman from the inner city who has seen it all. He and Augie seemingly get off on the wrong foot but, over time, he shows the young West Virginian ways of surviving the war and the ignorance of the base’s military commanders.

There’s Staff Sgt. Roy Shaver, who runs the off-duty NCO Club. Shaver cheats the men by short-pouring their drinks, rigging the slot machines and overcharging for the skinny Vietnamese whores he pimps.

And then there’s “Roter” Charlie, a north-Georgia helicopter pilot who swears he spotted a pink armored personnel carrier in the middle of a battlefield. Turns out Charlie was right, the vehicle was given a coat of pink paint after being pressed into service as a mobile bordello.

“Augie’s War” is a deadly serious but outrageously funny novel that deserves to find the widest reading audience possible.

James E. Casto regularly reviews books for the Sunday Gazette-Mail

Decades after coming home from Vietnam, a West Virginia native and WVU graduate used his experiences from childhood and service overseas to write a novel.

“I never expected this to be published,”said author John Brown. “It was a bucket list item. I was doing it for myself and family.”

“Augie’s War” follows Augie Cumpton from the fictional Jewel Town. Brown said the name is inspired by a song from the ‘40s or ‘50s which described Clarksburg as the Jewel of the Hills. Clarksburg’s Northview neighborhood, where the 73-year-old grew up, became Riverview.

Brown worked in his grandpa’s Italian bakery as a kid, and Cumpton draws on memories from his childhood spent in an Italian bakery to help deal with the traumas of war.

“It’s almost autobiographical, but it isn’t,” Brown said.

Brown said he grew up on the same block as his large Italian family, including aunts, uncles and roughly 20 cousins, all of whom had a large influence on him. Brown graduated from WVU in 1968, the first in his family to do so, with a degree in journalism and shortly after went to Vietnam as a “supply guy.” His first pick, a journalist, was full, so the Army handed him his second choice.

He said 1968 was a crazy time — the North Vietnamese called America’s ability to succeed in the war into question with the Tet Offensive, President Lyndon B. Johnson decided not to run for reelection because of criticism over his handling of the war, Martin Luther King was assassinated, then Bobby Kennedy.

Following graduation, Brown was drafted into the Army, and while he had the opportunity to become an officer, he said, “I figured I’d get in and out as quick as I can.”

Following basic training and advanced individual training, Brown was about to receive orders to “fix weapons in the middle of the boonies” when the Sergeant, from Beckley, asked if Brown could type.

“I looked him right in the eye and told a bold face lie; yeah, I’m a great typist,” Brown said.

That lie landed him in Chu Lai, with the 23rd Infantry Division known as “Americal” — the largest infantry unit in Vietnam – as an awards writer. Brown said he would take after action reports and turn them into award proposals to be sent up the chain of command.

After a year of working about six-and-a-half days a week, pulling guard duty and writing awards, Brown returned home in 1971, got married and started working on a master’s degree.

While decompressing from his year at war, Brown said he started to write about his experiences, but “fortunately,” life intervened, and his family and career prevented him from doing so.

In 2016, Brown handed his business, Brown Communications, to his son and retired. He said his wife was concerned he needed something to do and suggested he finish the book. Brown said he didn’t think writing the book was therapeutic until a friend who was a forward observer in the war, “a really dangerous job,” suggested it might be.

“I never thought about it that way, but there could be an element of that,” he said. “I didn’t have many bad experiences; had a few close calls, but I didn’t dwell on it when I came back.”

Brown said he had people ask him if the “wild and crazy” stuff that happens in the book is true, and he just responded with the old adage that “truth is stranger than fiction.”

“Augie’s War” is, unconsciously, an antiwar book, Brown said. He said he noticed Afghanistan has parallels with Vietnam and that we didn’t learn from the past. Not everything about the wars is the same — the military is now all volunteer, instead of mostly draftees, he said. That might not be a good thing, though.

“These people are going multiple times.” Brown said. “I don’t think I could have gone back multiple times. I can’t imagine. The toll on the psyche of the people that are fighting in the war and instances of suicide and PTSD and all that are just off the charts.”

The number of soldiers who die shrank. The Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., had 58,318 names on it as of Memorial Day 2017. During his time over there, Brown said 300-400 soldiers a week were being killed. According to the Department of Defense, between Oct. 7, 2001 and Dec. 31, 2014, 1,833 soldiers were killed in Afghanistan — the war has dragged on about three more years since then.

Another improvement is that veterans are treated with respect now, a far cry from the treatment Brown and other Vietnam veterans experienced — being spit on and called a baby killer upon their return home.

The problem, Brown said, is the mission of the Afghanistan war, similar to Vietnam, isn’t clear.

“What I hope that comes through in my novel is the absurdity of war and how we don’t necessarily solve things by trying to impose our will in areas that are so far away from us,” he said.

The 235 page novel received overwhelming positive reviews. It has a 4.41 average review on Goodreads, a popular website for reviewing and discussing books.

“Riveting book that switches back and forth between Augie’s experience as a young soldier in Vietnam and his childhood upbringing in a small Italian immigrant community in WV. Brown has a remarkable ability to conjure vivid imagery of the devastatingly harsh and punishing time he spent in Vietnam while still injecting humor and levity into these passages,” wrote Laura Brown. “In contrast, the stories of a childhood spent enveloped in a large and warm Italian family, while equally vivid, are first and foremost hilarious. The cast of characters Augie reflects on are delightful oddballs and warm, colorful family members that provide reprieve from his present situation, one that is riddled with ethical dilemmas, incompetent leadership and unbearable living conditions.”

In recent months, Brown considered writing a sequel or possibly turning the book into a movie. He said there’s an outline, and lots of things were left hanging at the end of “Augie’s War.”

“Augie’s War” is available for purchase on Amazon and other retailers. The novel’s official website is www.augieswar.com.