In 1967, John (Chick) Donohue was a 26-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran working as a merchant seaman when he was challenged one night in a New York City bar. The men gathered at this hearth had lost family and friends in the ongoing war in Vietnam. Now, they were seeing protesters turn on the troops. One neighborhood patriot proposed an idea many might deem preposterous: One of them should sneak into Vietnam, track down their buddies in combat, and give each of them messages of support from back home, maybe some laughs - and beer. Chick volunteered for the mission. He sailed to Vietnam on a cargo ship carrying a backpack full of American beer, landing in Qui Nho'n in 1968. Things went awry when Chick got caught in the Tet Offensive, starting in the early hours as an eyewitness to the battle to retake the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, where he became stuck for months. Chick Donohue later became legendary as "the Sandhog who went to Harvard." He worked for decades on behalf of New York's tunnel builders as the legislative and political director of Sandhogs Local 147. This is the story of his epic beer run to Vietnam, in his own words and in those of the men he found in the war zone.

One night in 1967, twenty-six-year-old John Donohue, known as Chick, was out with friends, drinking in a New York City bar. The friends gathered there had lost loved ones in Vietnam. Now, they watched as anti-war protesters turned on the troops themselves. One neighborhood patriot came up with an inspired, some would call it insane, idea. Someone should sneak into Vietnam, track down their buddies there, give them messages of support from back home, and share a few laughs over a can of beer. But who'd be crazy enough to do it? One man was up for the challenge, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran turned merchant mariner who wasn't about to desert his buddies on the front lines when they needed him. Chick volunteered. A day later, he was on a cargo ship headed to Vietnam, armed with Irish luck and a backpack full of alcohol. Landing in Qui Nho'n, Chick set off on an adventure that would change his life forever.

Soon to be a major motion picture, this is a memoir of a New Yorker and former US Marine who embarked on a courageous, hare-brained scheme to deliver beer to his pals serving Vietnam in the late 1960s. The adventure that would change his life forever is told in Chick's own words and those of the men he visited in Vietnam.