This provocative in-depth book focuses on the experiences of the infantry soldier in Vietnam. More than 60 Army and Marine Corps infantrymen speak of their experiences during their year-long tours of duty.

After spending a year in Germany as a security guard with the 50th Ordnance Company, Curtis Gay went to Viet Nam as a Private First Class. Six months later he was a Sergeant in the 25th Infantry Division and experienced some of the most intense fighting of the war. This book is his story.Curtis spent a year as a Drill Sergeant at Fort Dix, New Jersey before leaving the Army in 1968. After a long career in the electrical industry, he is retired and lives in Durham, North Carolina wi...

More than 100 compelling, true stories of personal heroism and valor– in a special expanded edition honoring courage in the face of warHere are dramatic accounts of the fearless actions that earned American soldiers in Vietnam our highest military distinction–the Medal of Honor. Edward F. Murphy, head of the Medal of Honor Historical Society, re-creates the heroic acts of individual soldiers from official documents, Medal of Honor citations, contemporary accounts, ...

While the seventy-seven-day siege of Khe Sanh in early 1968 remains one of the most highly publicized clashes of the Vietnam War, scant attention has been paid to the first battle of Khe Sanh, also known as “the Hill Fights.” Although this harrowing combat in the spring of 1967 provided a grisly preview of the carnage to come at Khe Sanh, few are aware of the significance of the battles, or even their existence. For more than thirty years, virtually the only people who knew about the Hill ...

Imagine being one of a 7-man team in the middle of a jungle where any person you might encounter will try to kill you. This is enemy territory, inhabited by an unknown number of enemy combatants. You might encounter 1 or 2 of the Viet Cong or North Vietnamese Army or just as easily 50 or more. In addition, there is the danger of man-eating tigers and poisonous snakes! Your mission is to find the enemy without them finding you. You are to report their position so that artillery batteries, b...

Raw, hard hitting, not politically correct, as it was during the early years of the 1970s. See through the soldiers eyes his perspectives, as he takes you visually through his personal slice of the non-winnable Vietnam War. Feel his fear and euphoria from the mundane to the cracking sounds of AK 47 rounds zipping past his head. Meet the friendly creatures persecuting the Grunts daily, while on operations. Feel his feelings on the few rest days, trying to unwind. A must to read, if you want...

In the fall of 1969, Gary Bray landed in South Vietnam as a recently married, freshly minted second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. His assignment was not enviable: leading the platoon whose former members had committed the My Lai massacre—the murder of hundreds of Vietnamese civilians—eighteen months earlier. In this compelling memoir, he shares his experiences of Vietnam in the direct wake of that terrible event.After My Lai documents the war’s horrific effects on both side...

**“Excellent . . . honest and realistic . . . Edward Murphy’s meticulous research is unflawed and his writing style is novel-like.”—San Antonio Express-News“A no-holds barred account . . . highly recommended.”—Military magazine**In June 1967, General William Westmoreland sent the 173d Airborne Brigade to Dak To, a mountainous region in the deadly Central Highlands. Here the 173d found itself locked in mortal combat, facing tremendous odds against a profess...

They called themselves Seawolves . . .The men of SEALs, PBRs, and SF called them saviors . . .Created in 1967, the HAL-3 helicopter squadron--aka Seawolves--provided quick-reaction close air support to SEALs, PBR River Rats, and Special Forces advisers and their troops. During the five years of the unit's existence, the seven detachments of Seawolves amassed stunning statistics: 78,000 missions, 8,200 enemy kills, 8,700 sampans sunk, and 9,500 structures destroyed. These 200...

"Vietnam was a fantasy life of gunfire, blood,heat, and superhuman toil."By late 1969, the end of the war was just over the horizon. But for Ches Schneider, a drafted schoolteacher turned infantry grunt in the deadly Central Highlands, it was just beginning. This story of a Missouri boy, told with grit and honesty, describes the stark transition from the normalcy of schooldays to the life-and-death drama endured daily in Vietnam's bloody jungles.As a soldier in the 1...

In January 1968, John Corbett and his fellow leathernecks of the 26th Marine Regiment fortified a remote outpost at a place in South Vietnam called Khe Sanh. Within days of their arrival, twenty thousand North Vietnamese soldiers surrounded the base. What followed over the next seventy-seven days became one of the deadliest fights of the Vietnam War—and one of the greatest battles in military history.Private First Class Corbett made do with little or no sleep for days on end. The e...

“I was always happy to see first light.By first light it was over . . . for a while.”–from Down SouthThere were a lot of ways to get killed in Vietnam. You could get “zapped,” “dinged,” “burned,” “popped,” “smoked,” or “wasted.” Marine 2nd Lt. William H. Hardwick was familiar with all of them because, unlike most USMC artillery officers–who waged their war from bunkers inside protected compounds–Hardwick as a forward observer fought ...