Tim Felker was born and raised in Washington, D.C. He earned his commission through Army ROTC at college in Minnesota in 1962. After completing the basic infantry officer course at Fort Benning, he had three years of command at Fort Dix, overseeing basic training for enlisted infantry, and then commanded the honor guard at Seventh Army in Germany. Felker was already proficient in French, and learned Vietnamese at the Defense Language Institute before deploying to Vietnam in February of 1967, where he was assigned as senior adviser to 4th Battalion, 44th Infantry Regiment, 23d ARVN Division in Phan Thiet in southern II Corps. He returned for a second tour in 1971, serving as the MACV J2 (intelligence) senior analyst at headquarters at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon. Felker describes his excellent relationship with the ARVN battalion commander, with whom he communicated only in French and Vietnamese; sleeping on the ground in the rain in 50 degree weather with nothing but a poncho liner for warmth during operations; eating snake, black duck eggs, rice “black with flies,” and wolf (noting proudly that he never got sick). He discusses the four-man adviser teams, their roles and missions, and their monthly feasts with the village potentates. He remembers Tet, the Easter Offensive, Agent Orange, a beeline, a facial reconstruction effort, a ten-foot python, an exploding ammo dump, seven-day work weeks, daily intelligence briefings, a neat cartoon, and a tobacco coup. After serving 25 years as a Soldier, Felker spent 21 years in Defense Intelligence doing HUMINT work.