A bemused Brit who served with the US Army in the 1950s recalls some of the humorous highlights of a life among the GIs: the 330lb New York Giants football hero with whom he shared a double bunk... the Polish asylum seeker who knew the Uniform Code of Military Justice by heart... the short-sighted and excitable Greek... the Virgin Islander who made a habit of dropping live hand grenades... the company master-sergeant who tended accidentally to call out his own name in morning assemblies...

And of course there's the author himself – who got the best job in the Army, complete with a Colt 45, eight rounds of live ammunition and permission to shoot anyone who got in his way.

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Chris Holloway spent ten years as a resident in the United States, where, apart from two years' reluctant service in the armed forces, he worked at Cunard Line's North American head office in New York. Transferred back to the company's UK head office in 1966, he later worked in other sectors of travel before leaving the industry to teach tourism. He retired as Professor of Tourism Management at the University of the West of England in 1997. He is the author of two bestselling textbooks on the tourism industry, The Business of Tourism and Marketing for Tourism, both published by Pearson.

"An entertaining and anecdotal read, not least because of Chris Holloway's affectionate and quizzical approach to frequently disparate colleagues... the 50s photographs are always fascinating."
– Reviewed in the autumn edition of the Bristol Review of Books