Gladiators Playing to the Six O'clock News is a fictional account loosely based on a year in the life of a young officer in Viet Nam. It has gritty language and adult situations graphically depicted in the lives of GIs at war. It follows what Lt. Marc Bowman has to go through from the time he lands in Viet Nam till he boards the Freedom Bird bringing him back to the states (The World). Although the events, situations and people in the book are mostly true the names have been changed to protect the privacy of all. The situations and people involved may be combined and attributed to Marc for consistency of storyline by following one character throughout the book. There are several scenes in the book that are totally fictional to build the characters or interest in the storyline.