Straightforward and Immediate
This book won't give you long, flowery theories or metaphors. It sticks to short sentences that make it clear what's going on.
And cursing. Lots and lots of [bleep]ing curse words all over the dialogue.
But that doesn't mean the writing is simple. The descriptions are detailed and sensory. The cursing makes the soldiers' conversation feel realistic. And a lot of attention is paid to how time moves when you're a soldier in Vietnam. The chapters between missions seem to fly by, and the descriptions of the missions themselves are long. During a mission, you're in Perry's head, moment-to-moment:
"Don't think. Don't even think of God. I thought. I thought of all the good things I had done in my life. I didn't deserve to die. I didn't want to die." (15.61)
Perry's trouble is he can't turn his brain off. He can't stop thinking when he's supposed to be all alertness and action. Walter Dean Myers' writing puts readers right in the middle of that problem, and the style is one way he drives the point home.