War College: It's Complicated
by Sherry Preston — Gering Cover To Cover
February 2025
I like to read books that take place in our area. Sometimes I am frustrated because the author hasn’t made much of an attempt to accurately portray Nebraska, for example I once read a book in which the author had named a town right outside of Lincoln “Mesquite”. Mesquite does not grow anywhere in Nebraska, and if it did, it would be a good four hundred miles west of Lincoln. That’s why we name things Cottonwood, Elm, and Pine around here.
Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised. Mark Donahue recently published War College: It’s Complicated. Donahue attended Hiram Scott College the year it opened, 1965. If you aren’t familiar with Hiram Scott, my column from last week will connect the dots.
Donahue has fond memories of Scottsbluff, and it shows. He doesn’t always portray the locals as welcoming to the students, but he shows their individual humanity, and the complicated reasons for the strong feelings both the students and the locals had surrounding the Vietnam War.
Most of the book focuses on the students rather than the locals. The author introduces the reader to five different young men who were in the inaugural class at Hiram Scott College. One lost his appointment to Annapolis due to an ethics violation; an athlete made a poor decision and lost a scholarship; two were given the choice of jail, the Army, or college; and the fifth was a local who was unable to leave for college because of family health issues. None of the main characters were overtly avoiding the draft.
One of this book’s strengths was the natural dialogue, here’s an excerpt from right after the students got to Scottsbluff:
“You guys looked around town yet?’
‘Not much to see,’ Augie said.
‘Me and Augie went out to where they’re building the new dorm. It’s in the middle of a damn cornfield. Guess it won’t be done till next year.’
As the guys talked, students kept coming in and out of Vic’s. In the corner near the front door, a family of four sat and stared at what they perceived as aliens from another planet, not used to seeing that much long hair in one place.”
Donahue has fond memories of Scottsbluff, and it shows. He doesn't always portray the locals as welcoming to the students, but he shows their individual humanity, and the complicated reasons for the strong feelings both the students and the locals had surrounding the Vietnam War.
I expect the college students and the locals both experienced culture shock in those first weeks.
I wasn’t born until the 1970s, so I can only speak to my personal memory, but it seemed that the author portrayed the town as it would have been in the mid-1960s, name-dropping local businesses and attractions.
Mark Donahue will be coming to speak at the Lied Scottsbluff Public Library at 3:00 p.m. on April 12th. Donahue will discuss his experiences here as a student in 1965-1966 as well as how the Vietnam War and military draft impacted the lives of Americans in the 1960s and 1970s.
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Nebraska State Historical Society Foundation, Gering Public Library Foundation, The Western Library System, Hod Kosman, Celli’s Cycle Center, and the Lied Scottsbluff Public Library. Donahue’s talk will be free and open to the public.
Readers should be advised that this book is about college boys and the things that were happening in the mid-1960s, sex, drugs, rock-and-roll, and of course war. If local experiences during Vietnam is an interest of yours, you can also find Bury Him by LaGrange, Wyoming author Doug Chamberlain on the shelf at the Gering Library.