hailed as the catch22 of the vietnam war slow walk in a sad rain is based on the authors own experiences as a combat green beret this poignant darkly comic debut novel establishes john p mcafee as an extraordinary new voice in wartime fictionthe story begins in special forces a camp number 413 twenty miles from the cambodian border the camps green berets dividing their time between boredom and terror are ostensibly led by a captain the narrator of the story but the officer actually takes his cue from an aggressive sergeant named shotgun who is alternately crazy and wise but always irresistibly frighteningly dangerous the altogether appropriate motto of a camp is normal is a cycle on a washing machine commanding officers issue orders that have no meaning weapons are used in ways that are the grotesque opposite of their original design and in an experience that has a reallife counterpart the green berets stumble on a shocking alliance between the cia and north vietnam something they realize they must destroy even at the cost of bringing both sides down on them