Tracers

Tracers was created in 1980 by a group of Vietnam veterans. The play concerns the reality, grittiness and horror of on-the-ground combat, avoiding Hollywood glorification of the fighting experience by fixing on the memories of men who actually lived through the consequences of what up until then had been America’s most appalling foreign policy blunder (if war is, as the old saying goes, the failure of diplomacy).

It’s the story of six soldiers, their medic, and their drill instructor. The six are a fighting unit, with all the bickering, the petty infighting, the camaraderie, the affection and the devotion of a marriage. They are described by the play’s conceiver, John DiFusco, as “young men laughing in the face of evil.” The greatest victory available from the war may be the simple act of remaining alive. Some will, some won’t.