"On the Road to Innsbruck and Back" is a product of the author's long obsession with serving in Europe during World War II as a member of the 103rd Infantry Division. Too often he was given a responsibility that he neither deserved nor desired. But then he was in an Intelligence and Reconnaissance platoon, at the service of a regimental headquarters. The chief model for On the Road is Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, the best short novel about war that he knows. Like Crane, he wanted, above all, to demonstrate the moral cost of some months in combat upon a not-insensitive young man. Contents: Dedication | Acknowledgments | Preface | Poem: "Dog Tags" | Chapter 1: Living with Violence: The Making of an American Soldier | Chapter 2: Losing It | Chapter 3: Under Fire | Chapter 4: Dogfaces and Dogrobbers | Chapter 5: Collaborating | Chapter 6: Undercover | Chapter 7: Delivering the Goods | Chapter 8: The Hero Syndrome | Chapter 9: Gathering Intelligence | Chapter 10: Off Limits and Out of Control | Chapter 11: Winding Down | Chapter 12: On the Road to Innsbruck and Back | Chapter 13: On the Way Back | Chapter 14: Double Solitaire on the Home Front | Chapter 15: Crime and Punishment | Chapter 16: Period of Adjustment. Published by Merriam Press.