cover image My Father, My Son:

My Father, My Son:

Elmo R. Zumwalt. MacMillan Publishing Company, $0 (224pp) ISBN 978-0-02-633630-7

Admiral Elmo Zumwalt Jr. ordered the Agent Orange defoliation during the Vietnam war, in part to protect sailors such as his son, Elmo III, who was involved in the riverine aspect of fighting. Years later, the son developed two kinds of terminal cancer, and his own son, Russell, was discovered to have a severe learning disability. This agonizing story is related here largely by the two men themselves, but also by their wives, former comrades in battle and others. Elmo III's harrowing journey through chemotherapy and a bone-marrow transplant (while maintaining a full-time law practice) are recounted in detail. When this book was written, Elmo Zumwalt III was still ""beating the odds,'' as Pekkanen puts it. Photos. BOMC alternate. (September 30)