Some journeys end.

Walking in the Garden

A soldier’s account

From a fractured childhood in St. Paul, Minnesota, through LRRP training with Special Forces in Bad Tölz, Germany, Jeff Daley’s path led into triple-canopy jungle, where a four-to-six-man team’s survival depended on silence, discipline, and each other.

Wounded and reported missing in action, Daley returned home in November 1966 and continued into a Bell System career, a doctorate, and decades of service to fellow veterans through the VA.

Reconstructed from memory, declassified records, and after-action reports, this is a personal account of a war fought from the ridgelines—narrow in view, permanent in its cost, and written so his family would know where he walked.

From the author

Hear Jeff Daley’s story

A brief introduction to the experiences behind Walking in the Garden.

Select play to hear Jeff narrate.