While recently reading In Pharaoh's Army by Tobias Wolff, I was transported back 47 years in time and to San Francisco in place.

Tobias Wolff, author of the novel and later movie, A Boy's Life (starring Robert De Niro and Ellen Barkin) had enlisted in the US Army and was spending a last night in Frisco, in 1968, before shipping out to Vietnam. He is joined by a buddy, Stu, who disappears the next morning when he is ordered to muster for his own trip to Nam.

Tobias is one of the Wolff literary duo of Geoffrey and Tobias Wolff. Both are acclaimed authors.

Toby (Tobias' nickname) writes intriguingly of his wartime adventures as a paratrooper and Special Forces person in a small village, My Tho, in the backwaters of Vietnam. His description of the Tet Offensive and being overrun by the VC (Viet Cong) is direct and lucid.

Back to San Francisco. I shipped out to Korea in 1959. The war was over and I am not trying to be a hero or a medal winner. I was just a recent NYU dental school grad with a single silver bar on each shoulder. Nothing in my Bronx or academic life was preparatory for my forthcoming trip to Chosen (Korea).

My last night in San Francisco!

My buddy Dave and I had met in Fort Sam Houston, TX, while shooting pool at the Officers' Club. He, too, was going to Korea. Actually, he was originally slated to go to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, but he switched orders for $500 and was bound for Korea and adventure.

We had a glorious meal in Ernie's for a start. In 1959, much of the show business talent originated in Frisco. After a trip to Finocchio's which was a revue of men dancing as women (that's life at the city by the bay) we staggered over to the famous night club The Purple Onion. Featured that evening were the Kingston Trio and two brothers constantly harassing each other. They were to become famous, the Smothers Brothers.

Somewhere along that evening we met two Turkish enlisted men who were leaving the next day for Easter Island. We were all excited and quite a bit "just plain scared!"

The readings of Tobias Wolff transported me back to that eventful night in San Francisco, 45 years prior. That is exactly what good books are intended to accomplish.

Nobody ever forgets military experiences.