James Crumley: One to Count Cadence (UK 2016)

From the Publisher:
Clark Air Force Base, the Philippines. 1962. Sergeant Jacob 'Slag' Krummel, wannabe scholar now warrior, is posted to the base to take command of the 721st Communication Security Detachment, perhaps the least committed band of drunken, rebellious and bored soldiers in the US Air Force. With the Vietnam War looming large in their minds, they cannot escape war, fear and the truth about America, overturning the lies they've been told about their homeland.

First published in 1969, this is the debut that launched the career of one of the greatest writers of his generation. Crumley's timeless classic is a stunning exploration of the effects of war, told with his trademark razor-sharp dialogue, dark humour, relentless pace and remarkable set pieces.

James Crumley: One to Count Cadence. Transworld Digital, ISBN: 9781473540729 (April, 2016), eBook, 2.79 MB (ca. 256 p.), £4.99.

James Crumley: One to Count Cadence (USA 1987)

From the Publisher:
The time: late summer, 1962. The place: Clark Air Force Base, the Philippines. Sergeant Jacob "Slag" Krummel, a scholar by intent but a warrior by breeding, assumes command of the 721st Communication Security Detachment, an unsoldierly crew of bored, rebellious, whoring, foul-mouthed, drunken enlistees. Surviving military absurdities reminiscent of those in CATCH 22 only to be shipped clandestinely to Vietnam, Krummel's band confront their worst fears while finally losing faith in America and its myths.

James Crumley: One to Count Cadence. Vintage Contemporaries, ISBN: 0394735595 (May, 1987), 338 p., $5.95.

James Crumley: One to Count Cadence (USA 1969)

From the Publisher:
The time is the late summer of 1962. The place is Clark Air Force Base in the Philippine Islands. A new sergeant, "Slag" Krummel, arrives from the States to take over the 721st Communication Security Detachment, a collection of dissatisfied, rebellious enlistees. Narrated by Krummel, One to Count Cadence begins as a story of the peacetime Army, the drinking and whoring, the defiance of officers and regulations, the camaraderie of lonely men and women with too much time on their hands.

Comic, absurd, violent, One to Count Cadence is a mirror of that part of a generation reared on violence, actors in the American wars of the 1960's who can no longer believe in the myths and institutions of their country. Exploring with fidelity and compassion the men who make war and who are, like all of us, its victims, it is least of all a war novel. It is a book about friend. ship-especially that of Krummel and Private Joe Morning. "The best of us, the most damned of us all."
And finally it is about survival.

James Crumley was born in Three Rivers, Texas, in 1939. He attended Georgia Tech, Texas College of Arts and Industries, and the University of Iowa Writers Workshop. He has worked in the Texas oil fields as a truck swamper, a roustabout, and has also tended bar. He served for three years as an enlisted man with the United States Army. He taught English at the University of Montana, and now teaches at the University of Arkansas. One to Count Cadence is Mr. Crumley's first novel.

James Crumley: One to Count Cadence. ...six for pallbeaers, two for roadguards and one to count cadence. A Novel. New York: Random House, 1969, 338 p., $6.95.