"I remembered thinking that my heart was beating so damn loud that Ho Chi Minh could hear it in Hanoi," he says. "For a millisecond, I wondered if my left boot was far enough to fire when the NVA soldier touched the soul of my 10 army issue RON" He adds: "A 15-foot car on full automatic sounds much different from an AK-47 on full automatic." The story is published by Simon & Schuster at $25 each.