Opening
In 1967 Inwood, Manhattan, John "Chick" Donohue turns a barroom dare into a mission: carry beer to friends serving in Vietnam to prove they’re not forgotten. Sparked by George "The Colonel" Lynch’s patriotic outrage and anchored in a tight-knit neighborhood’s grief, the plan starts as a joke and hardens into a vow—equal parts absurd and profound.
What Happens
Chapter 1: One Night in a New York City Bar—The Colonel’s Challenge
At Doc Fiddler’s in Inwood, November 1967, the neighborhood watches news of anti-war protests turning against soldiers. The bartender, the Colonel, a parade-organizing patriot who shelters returning GIs, rages that the boys overseas feel abandoned. This sparks the story’s core tension and the theme of Patriotism and Support for Soldiers.
In the heat of that anger, the Colonel proclaims that somebody should go to Vietnam and hand-deliver beers to their friends at the front. He eyes Chickie, a merchant mariner with a seaman’s card, and even asks to “borrow” it. Chickie knows the logistics don’t work—but the idea hooks him. Haunted by the 28 local dead and by Tommy Minogue’s sacrifice, ashamed to be “on the beach” while friends risk their lives, and compelled by Friendship, Loyalty, and Camaraderie, he blurts out a promise: get the names, and he’ll bring each man a beer.
Chapter 2: Gathering the Names
By morning, word spreads. Regulars flood Doc Fiddler’s with names and APO addresses, turning a tipsy boast into a community mission with real stakes. Mrs. Collins, mother of Chickie’s childhood friend Tommy Collins, arrives in tears, thanking him and pressing $100 into his hand. He refuses the money; her plea makes the risk feel immediate and personal.
Doubts hit him hard, but the bar rallies, sealing his commitment. Chickie compiles a list: Tommy Collins, Rick Duggan, Bobby Pappas, Kevin McLoone, and Richard Reynolds, among others. The neighborhood’s grief and pride now ride on his shoulders.
Chapter 3: Setting Sail
Chickie heads to the National Maritime Union Hall and jumps on an ammo ship bound for Vietnam, landing a last-minute oiler job on the World War II-era SS Drake Victory. It’s a “pierhead jump”—the ship is leaving now. With no time to go home, he stocks up on basics and loads a case of New York beer—Pabst and Schaefer—for a literal taste of home.
From a payphone in Leonardo, New Jersey, he calls his mother, saying he’s shipping out to “Asia,” pointedly avoiding the word Vietnam. Fear breaks through his bravado—he might not come back. He boards as the gangway rises. The beer run shifts from idea to action.
Chapter 4: Voyage to Vietnam
The Pacific crossing takes two months. As an ammo ship, the Drake Victory steers far off common routes; life aboard is a “100 percent male world” with a tough, insular crew. Thinking ahead, Chickie gets elected union chairman to gain leverage with the captain and works extra shifts, banking favors so shipmates can cover for him in Vietnam.
Midvoyage, a fire erupts over a hatch stacked above 10,000 tons of explosives. In seconds, rank and resentment vanish; the crew unites and puts it out. The scare forges trust. Approaching Vietnam, Chickie draws confidence from prior military time in Japan. On January 19, 1968, the ship anchors in Qui Nhon Harbor.
Chapter 5: Anchored off Qui Nhon
First problem: nobody’s allowed ashore. Because of the ammunition cargo, the ship anchors far out, and shore leave is forbidden. Chickie decides to gamble with the captain he normally avoids, crafting a story about a nearby “stepbrother” who needs urgent family news delivered.
The captain doesn’t buy it, accusing him of angle-shooting for brothels. Anticipating this, Chickie positions the ask around the captain’s priority—work completed—explaining his oiler shifts are covered for three days, which he naively believes is enough. The captain relents to avoid hassle and paperwork, parting with a mordant order: “Don’t get killed. I wouldn’t want to do all that paperwork.” With grudging permission, the beer run begins for real.
Character Development
Chickie’s bravado evolves into solemn duty. What begins as a spontaneous boast becomes a community-backed promise that forces him to plan, lead, and risk everything. Beneath his swagger, the call to his mother reveals fear and tenderness.
- Takes ownership: turns a bar dare into a concrete plan and timeline
- Gains leverage: becomes union chairman to secure shore leave flexibility
- Trades labor strategically: banks shifts to buy time in-country
- Reveals vulnerability: admits fear privately even as he stays outwardly confident
The Colonel serves as catalyst and conscience. His fierce neighborhood patriotism and theatrical flair ignite the mission and keep Chickie accountable.
- Channels community grief into action: reframes support for soldiers apart from the politics
- Rallies the bar: transforms a wild idea into a shared vow
- Sets the stakes: frames the mission as morale-saving, not just symbolic
Themes & Symbols
The pull of friendship and neighborhood loyalty powers every decision. [Friendship, Loyalty, and Camaraderie] animate Chickie’s acceptance, the bar’s mobilization, and the ship crew’s instant unity during the fire. The mission’s risk is the price of belonging to a community that refuses to forget its own.
Patriotism here is intimate, not abstract. In contrast to national debate, [Patriotism and Support for Soldiers] centers on caring for individuals—boys from the block—separating the politics of the war from the people fighting it. The story leans into war’s surreal contradictions: a civilian “beer run” infiltrating a combat zone spotlights both the absurdity of Vietnam and the desperate hunger for normalcy. The beer itself becomes symbol and message—home in a can, proof that the line back to Inwood still holds.
Key Quotes
“Don’t get killed. I wouldn’t want to do all that paperwork.”
- The captain’s gallows humor reduces life-and-death risk to bureaucratic burden, capturing the military machine’s cold pragmatism. It also underlines Chickie’s liminal status—authorized just enough to be endangered.
“Pierhead jump”
- This maritime term underscores the mission’s impulsive momentum. The immediacy of departure mirrors Chickie’s snap decision to act first and figure out the rest underway.
“100 percent male world”
- The ship’s gendered isolation reveals a closed ecosystem built on toughness, hierarchy, and work. It foreshadows the male-bonded solidarity that both enables and tests Chickie’s plan.
“On the beach”
- Sailor slang for being ashore and unemployed doubles as Chickie’s moral unease—idle at home while friends fight. The phrase reframes aimlessness as a problem he intends to solve through action.
“Borrow” it
- The Colonel’s ask to “borrow” the seaman’s card is both comic and shrewd, collapsing legalities into loyalty. It marks the shift from abstract outrage to a concrete, if harebrained, scheme.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters build the memoir’s heartbeat: an outrageous act of care rooted in a working-class neighborhood’s grief and pride. They frame the beer run as more than a stunt—an antidote to soldiers’ isolation and a protest against forgetting them. By charting Chickie’s leap from barstool to war zone—assembling names, securing passage, navigating authority—the section sets the stakes for everything to come: every found friend will test loyalty’s limits, and every unopened can will measure the distance between home and the front.