Who is Frederick Downs, Lt. Frederick Downs, Lt. Downs, the Lieuten from The Killing Zone: My Life in the Vietnam War and what is their importance?

The book is an autobiographical account of the experience of Frederick Downs in the war in Vietnam, who is a Lieutenant. Lt. Downs arrives in Vietnam, on September 8th, 1967. He is severely wounded a bit more than four months later. Though Lt. Downs is only on the battlefield a few months, he has a wide variety of combat experiences. Lt. Downs feels the joy and pride in being a successful leader of the 1st Platoon, Delta Company and is an aggressive leader. His mission is generally to hunt down the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army soldiers and kill them. Lt. Downs hopes the U.S. can succeed in the war, which is to defend South Vietnam from being taken over by North Vietnam, and by the communist Vietcong. He is often frustrated with the little effort he sees on the part of the South Vietnamese Army, the ARVN, to defend their own country. He cannot speak Vietnamese and seldom has translators to communicate with the people, except on the most basic level.