A01=Jon Goetzsche
Author_Jon Goetzsche
Category=DNC
Category=Dogtag Memories
Category=NHH
Category=NHWR9
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
NA
Product details
- ISBN 9781776392704
- Dimensions: 152 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 01 Mar 2026
- Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
- Publication City/Country: ZA
- Product Form: Paperback
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A raw, darkly humorous memoir that follows one conscript’s chaotic journey through South Africa’s military machine during the border war.
Drafted into the Defence Force in 1977 as a carefree seventeen-year-old, Jon Goetzsche’s tranquil schooldays were abruptly replaced by the brutal regimentation of army life. What began as naive indifference soon spiralled into a struggle against authority, misfortune and the absurdities of war.
After surviving the gruelling training to become a parabat, Jon was court-martialled for assaulting a fellow soldier and sent to Detention Barracks. Reassigned to an ordinary infantry battalion, he completed five months of training and was sent to the border for the rest of his two years’ national service, followed by several camps, when he became a platoon sergeant. Through the laughable rules, harsh punishment, grinding boredom, fatal accidents and firefights with enemy guerrillas, he endured with wit, irony and stubborn rebelliousness.
Told with unflinching honesty, gripping immediacy and biting humour, Dogtag Memories transcends the typical border war narrative. Decades later, Jon reflects on how those formative years shaped him, offering a poignant, irreverent and deeply human account of camaraderie, hardship and resilience.
Jon Goetzscche was born in 1959 in Harare, Zimbabwe. He spent most of his life in Johannesburg and now calls Cape Town home. After a career in the financial world, Jon swapped spreadsheets for scuba tanks and is a diving staff instructor. This is his first book.
