Writers become attached to some of their characters more than others. A favorite in Poisoned Jungle was Yardly, third platoon’s Montagnard Tiger Scout. Through his depiction in the novel, I hoped to convey part of the complexity of the situation for the Montagnard people in Vietnam. Portrayed as a boy soldier of sixteen who had seen his first combat at fifteen, I witnessed Montagnard soldiers as young as thirteen after a battle near the Seven Mountains. After treating many wounded in a mass casualty situation, I began asking an interpreter the ages of the youngest soldiers.