LUCKY CHARM?

Any war is a mix of patriotism, brotherhood, and a whole lot of luck. This is the incredible, oftentimes hilarious story of Pat Moffett, a very lucky twenty-year old, a self-admitted street-smart wise-ass kid from Brooklyn who joined the United States Army’s famed 101st Airborne Division, and was shipped 8,000 miles away to the bloody war in Vietnam—and somehow, despite one misadventure after another, lived to tell this tale.

Shortly after touching down in 'Nam, Private Pat Moffett realized if he was to survive the madhouse of war, he'd better make the best of it. With a bit of Irish luck and gift of blarney, Pat’s true-life wartime capers in Vietnam began with a vengeance as he ran secret personal missions for army brass—and found himself embroiled with currency schemes, the black market, impersonating officers, hijacking a helicopter to get pizza, dating bar girls, cutting deals, dodging bullets, picking shrapnel out of his butt, skirting police, getting dragged into street fights, being stalked by tigers, rescuing orphans, and going from being nearly arrested to getting a Bronze Star.

But if not for a fateful typographical error, Pat would have been assigned to a platoon that got entirely wiped out in a jungle massacre. For Pat it was a lucky stroke, one that changed his life for good and became a reminder of just how lucky he was during those fourteen months in ’Nam.

Lucked Out is Pat Moffett’s brilliant, irreverent firsthand account of his tour in Vietnam that ranges from the outrageous to the mind-bending, packed with action, but truly, in the end, is an embrace of all those with whom he was lucky enough to have served.