What began as a simple collection of local veteran Steve Bookout's memories of the Vietnam War will finally come full circle over the course of the next month with the publishing of his book, "The Boys from Jasper County: tales from the 'Nam."

"Initially, I started doing this with some of my own adventures for my descendants," Bookout said. "This was two years ago, and I got to thinking, there's other guys that have stories to tell. I had just talked to Dennis Black, our representative, and he had just come out with a book about Iowans in the Civil War and since I was working on this, I appreciated what he did because he had to go through all these records and it must have just taken forever." 

Black's work inspired Bookout to expand his collection to include the firsthand accounts of other local Vietnam veterans in addition to his own.