The 2015 Richard Boes Memorial Award goes to John E. Peltier for his book The Thundering Herd (ISBN 9781478765332). The award is a $100 cash prize for best debut book by a veteran (fiction or memoir) and is sponsored by Modern History Press. The contest is administered by Reader Views Inc., which includes a general book award contest as well.
Carol Hoyer’s review at Reader Views noted: “Peltier’s writing is very vivid and clear, readers will find themselves right in the middle of each escapade with him. ”
Richard Boes enlisted into the US Army and served in Vietnam in 1969 – 1970 with the First Air Cav. He is the author of two books, The Last Dead Soldier Left Alive (2007) a firsthand inquiry into why thousands of Vietnam veterans have committed suicide and Last Train Out (2008). Right up to his death Richard was writing a third, In the Valley of Dry Bones. He passed away on Feb 21st, 2009 at the VA Hospital in Albany, NY.
Past winners of the Richard Boes Memorial Award
- 2009 My Last War: A Vietnam Veteran’s Tour in Iraq by Charles M. Grist (ISBN 9781440152689)
- 2010 Sworn to Secrecy for Life: A Young American Spy’s Odyssey through War-torn Germany and Russia by Charles Joseph Fickey (ISBN 9781432761189)
- 2011 A Haunting Beauty: Vietnam Through the Eyes of an Artist by James John Magner (ISBN 978-1461057543).
- 2012 Deadly Lode by Randall Reneau (ISBN 978-1-47913179-2).
- 2014 A Country Doctor Goes To War (ISBN 978-0-985093761).
- 2015 When a Red Bird Flies (ISBN 978-0-98559699-6).
