Marble Mountain presents a personal account of a young mans 1966 combat tour as a Marine helicopter pilot. Of the many books I have read about Vietnam, Marble Mountain wins hand down for its raw honesty, youthful naivet, and pure readability.Through riveting imagery, Bud Willis finally opens a window of understanding for readers of any age to experience the conflicting drama of one of the most challenging periods of American history. Gripping, heart-wrenching, and realistic, Buds poignant ...

The men who served with in the 1st Infantry Division with F company, 52nd Infantry, (LRP) later redesignated as Company I, 75th Infantry (Ranger) --engaged in some of the fiercest, bloodiest fighting during the Vietnam War, suffering a greater relative aggregate of casualties that any other LRRP/LRP/ Ranger company. Their base was Lai Khe, within hailing distance of the Vietcong central headquarters, a mile inside Cambodia, with its vast stockpiles of weapons and thousands of transient VC ...

A founding member of the Navy SEALs recounts the formation of that elite fighting force in this "honest, no-holds-barred" memoir of the Vietnam War (Richard Marcinko, author of Rogue Warrior).Chief Petty Officer James "Patches" Watson was there at the start. As a high-performing frogman with the famed Underwater Demolition Team 21, he was chosen to become a founding member—or a "plank owner"—of the U.S. Navy SEALs.Through three tours in the jungle he...

On his first combat assignment, Cornett accompanied the Vietnamese Rangers on a search-and-destroy mission near Khe Sang. There he gained entree into a culture that he would ultimately respect greatly and admire deeply. Cornett's most challenging military duty began when he joined the Phoenix Program. As part of AK squad, he dressed in enemy uniform and roamed the deadly Central Highlands, capturing high-ranking VC officers in hot firefights and ambushes. It was there, deep in enemy territ...

"No way in hell you could survive 'out there' with six men. You couldn't live thirty minutes 'out there' with only six men." [pg. 13]In 1965 nearly four hundred men were interviewed and only thirty-two selected for the infant LRRP Detachment of the lst Brigade, 101st Airborne Division. Old-timers called it the suicide unit. Whether conducting prisoner snatches, search and destroy missions, or hunting for the enemy's secret base camps, LRRPs depended on one another 110 percent. One ...

“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 ...

In the 101st Airborne, if you cared enough to send the very best, you sent The Howlers.Gary Linderer volunteered for the Army, then volunteered for Airborne training. When he reached Vietnam in 1968, he was assigned to the famous “Screaming Eagles,” the 101st Airborne Division. Once there, he volunteered for training and duty with F Company 58th Inf, the Long Range Patrol company that was “the Eyes of the Eagle.”F Company pulled reconnaissance missions and ...

Perhaps the most accurate story of LRRPs at warever to appear in print!When Frank Johnson arrived in Vietnam in 1969, he was nineteen, a young soldier untested in combat like thousands of others--but with two important differences: Johnson volunteered for the elite L Company Rangers of the 101st Airborne Division, a long range reconnaissance patrol (LRRP) unit, and he kept a secret diary, a practice forbidden by the military to protect the security of LRRP operations.

In 1968 James T. Gillam left college and was drafted into the Army. Within a month he transformed from an uncertain sergeantwho tried to avoid combatto an aggressive soldier killing his first enemy and planning and executing successful ambushes in the jungle. Gillam was a regular point man and occasional tunnel rat who fought below ground an arena that few people knew about until after the war ended. He became a savage strangling a soldier in hand-to-hand combat inside a lightless tunnel. ...

In the summer of 1967, the good old days were ending for the hard-core 1st Brigade LRRPs of the 101st Airborne Division, perhaps the finest maneuver element of its size in the history of the United States Army. It was a bitter pill. After working on their own in Vietnam for more than two years, the Brigade LRRPs were ordered to join forces with the division once again.But even as these formidable hunters and killers were themselves swallowed up by the Screaming Eagles' Division LRP...

The memoir of a man who spent most of his career facing death.For UDT/SEAL team member Gary R. Smith, just being part of an elite military organization wasn’t enough—he had to be in the thick of the action. Because in bloody, violent Vietnam he learned there’s no stronger bond than the one forged in the gut-wrenching chaos of combat. During ambushes, PRU combat patrols, and extractions from hot LZs, Smith depended on the courage and sacrifice of his fellow SEALs, w...

"[An] intimate account of a Forward Air Controller working with the Special Forces on their secret operations in South Vietnam and Laos . . . Don't miss it!" (John Prados, author of Storm Over Leyte).Originally published in 1991, this classic work has now been revised and updated with additional photos. It is the story of how, in Vietnam, an elite group of Air Force pilots fought a secret air war in Cessna 0-2 and OV-10 Bronco prop planes—flying as low as t...