So our day had gone - crawling forward and ducking - until the Point Man spotted the figure of a person emerging from the tree line into which the dike disappeared. A Vietnamese man was coming directly toward us along the top of the dike, apparently oblivious to the danger he was courting. He was dressed in the typical black pajama outfit with the pants crawling up high around his ankles and the shirt sleeves too short for his arms. No sandals protected his feet, nor was he wearing the usual coolie hat. From a distance he appeared to be alone.

The Point man and his buddy held what looked like a very old man in their sights for a long while as he closed the distance between us.

SNAP ... Crack.

"Hold your fire," I said hurriedly as the enemy round flew by. "Don't want to waste anybody who looks that old. He's no problem to us."

BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG - another of our machine guns sent an answering burst. I could see a red tracer round fly by the oncoming man.

"There's somebody hiding behind that guy, sir. Crazy bastard's gonna get up on us and lob a grenade or somethin' in our laps." There was a tinge of urgency in the voice of the Point Man now.

Clearly, as he got closer, we could glimpse a second set of legs moving behind the first and what looked like two small brown hands gripping the man's hips.

He was an old man, bent dramatically at his waist from years of heavy labor, who could do nothing more than shuffle along the dike. Shuffle-step, shuffle-step, shuffle-step, each sliding foot moved him stiffly, with barely bent knees and elbows another foot or so on his journey towards us, filling more and more the point man's gun sight. And then from behind him appeared the face of an ancient mamma san peeking out to see how much progress they had made to wherever they were going. Her countenance was a calamity of wrinkles gouged in every square inch of skin which, in dramatic contrast to his, hung loosely in folds. We realized when we saw her that she wasn't deliberately hiding behind the man, but simply was remarkably short. She was, in fact, the force propelling him along.

"Bernard E. Grady has provided a powerful look into the reality of the Vietnam War."

Professor Walter H. Capps
Department of Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

"ON THE TIGER'S BACK is not just a tribute to the men who served their country in Vietnam, but a well done look at the reality of war itself ... certain to be read by military and non-military readers alike."

Walter J. Marm, Vietnam Veteran
Department of Recipient Congressional Medal of Honor

"This Vietnam War book tells one soldier's side of his 1966 tour through short stories about American, South Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers, and other farmers, fishermen and merchants in the local population. That's the strategy that makes this book a five star, one sitting read. Grady doesn't make judgements. He lets the reader do that."

Stars & Stripes

"Not just a tribute to the men who served their country in Vietnam, but a well done look at war itself."

The Intelligencer

"No matter what the reader's military experience, On the Tiger's Back is a good read.....
There are delightful remembrances of comical incidents; there are poignant memories that still haunt the author to this day. From the very first pages, Grady gives us lurid contrasts in the rich, natural beauty of Vietnam's landscape and the ever present dread of being in a place where unexpected death was the only constant. At time, his uncomplicated, factual prose is crafted with an almost poetic charm. Thick jungles breathe, lush with life yet masking menace above and below the ground... The composite whole of 29 chapters provides a fascinating mosaic of detail and the reflections of one man trying to do his duty, trying to survive, trying to make sense of it all."

The Army Chaplaincy

"On The Tiger's Back is a different kind of book about the Vietnam War. It is not a military narrative nor a political treatise nor a social analysis. Instead it is a book which opens a window for those of us who weren't there. In clear, compelling prose, Grady brings us into his world, the life of a grunt in Vietnam... Gritty, funny, honest, powerful, thoughtful--one of the finest books ever written about the war in Vietnam."

The Keystone Better Read