Books you can get lost in Published Jan. 18, 2007 By Col. Michael S. Stough 100th Air Refueling Wing Commander RAF Mildenhall -- Fields of Fire by James Webb - The new senator from Virginia and former secretary of the Navy wrote this book in the mid-1970s, based on his tour of duty in Vietnam as a Marine platoon commander. While I can recommend "Once an Eagle" from the Chief of Staff of the Air Force reading list, "Fields of Fire" is my favorite war novel of all time (and ranks right at the very top of all fiction I've ever read). Set in the An Hoa basin, the book chronicles the exploits and ordeals of 2nd Lt. Robert E. Lee Hodges and the Marines in his platoon. I've never been a fan of flashbacks in either books or movies, but Mr. Webb manages to use them very effectively to develop his characters without distracting the reader from the "present day" setting in Vietnam. The book's gritty realism has been consistently praised by veterans of the Vietnam conflict, and it's the first book I've seen on Amazon that received nothing but 5-star ratings (from 75 reviewers)! This book won't leave you feeling upbeat, but it will help provide insight into a difficult time in our nation's history. It's available in the USAFE library system.