The Greatest Beer Run Ever

This book traces the wild journey of John “Chick” Donohue as he uses his merchant marine documents to board a ship headed for Vietnam during the Vietnam war. He does so for the sole reason to visit buddies from his New York neighborhood and offer them beer, a hug, and encouragement from back home. Little does he know that his plan to leave his ship for a few days will leave him in Vietnam during the Tet offensive, the bloodiest period of the Vietnam war. The idea to venture to Vietnam during the war was borne out of a wild night in a frequented pub in John’s home town neighborhood. The highly patriotic pub owner was disturbed by what he perceived as caustic and misguided criticism toward American soldiers in Vietnam. Perhaps such caustic outcries against American soldiers was a misplaced discontent with American leadership and policy as John himself later reflects at the end of the book. This of course is not to dismiss actual atrocities that took place but simply to acknowledge that one could not paint American soldiers with a broad brush nor were such atrocities representative of the larger conduct of American soldiers.

John grew up in a tight neighborhood in New York. He describes a “free-range” sort of childhood. Older kids supervised younger kids, and the neighborhood acted as a communal grounds and extended family. This neighborhood in New York produced a lot of draftees in the Vietnam war. Young boys just out of high school frequently got swept up in the draft from this area and found themselves in perhaps the most hostile place in the world at the time. The phrase, “getting caught in the gears of history” is perhaps an appropriate description for the experience of many draftees. John, himself a former marine, discusses a strong sense of patriotism that permeated his neighborhood and a support for soldiers even when a war was not particularly popular.

During the previously mentioned wild night at his neighborhood pub, the owner was so upset with the discontent and vitriol expressed toward American soldiers by certain swaths of the public that he proposed “that someone ought to go over their and give our boys a beer and let em know that we have their back.” He singles out John, the author, as the man for the job. John half sarcastically commits and before he knows it he is acquiring a list of names of local boys he is supposed to find in Vietnam. He is committed for better or worse.

This book was quite a story as John recollects the multitude of sticky situations he found himself in as things do not go as planned once in Vietnam. He writes with humor and I often found myself laughing at his Chutzpah. The magnitude of his gift and what it must have meant to his compatriots goes without saying. He brought them a tangible reminder of that vague abstraction we call true friendship. His friendship was expressed in deed and one cannot help but wish they saw the expressions on his friends’ faces as he showed up in Vietnam unsolicited simply to give them a New York brew and a big hug. We should all be so lucky to have such friends. Perhaps more importantly we should strive to be the type of people who are worthy of such friends. I was very touched by this book. I think the author has a gift for seeing the funny in the absurdity of his situation. I am happy that this recollection of actual events is being produced into a movie.