Waiting on DEROS: A Soldier's Story is a collection of twenty-five short stories about camaraderie, sacrifice and survival. The thoughts and images offer light within the darkness, understanding within the pain and acknowledgement for the boys who endured, and for the boys who died.

First published in 1992. From the foreword: "Search and rescue has always been important to the United States Air Force, whose aircrews deserve nothing less than the fullest possible commitment to save them and return them home. The motto of Air Force search and rescue, "So Others May Live," is one of the most compelling of all military mottoes. It embodies this spirit of altruism and, as events have proven, also indicates the service's intention to furnish life-saving SAR for civilian as well as military purposes. Search and rescue flourished during World War II as lifeguard ships and submarines joined patrolling aircraft in saving lives and sustaining morale, especially in the Pacific Ocean Areas. The rotary-wing, turbojet, and avionics revolutions made modern SAR a reality. Foreshadowed by the Korean War, the helicopter became the principal form of air rescue vehicle in Vietnam. In three major conflicts, SAR forces gained a reputation for bravery, dedication, and self-sacrifice, as they ventured repeatedly into hostile territory to pluck fallen aircrews to safety. The USAF rightly continues to place a top priority on search and rescue, seeking better ways to perform this function through the use of advanced equipment and aircraft (such as the multipurpose MH-53J Pave Low helicopter) and improved training of personnel. This reprint of a classic work offers the reader an exciting and exacting history of the evolution of combat search and rescue in America's longest and most grueling war: the conflict in Southeast Asia."

The combat history of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines--or One Five (1/5)--is long and illustrious, but there are many periods of their combat operations during the Vietnam War about which there is little in print. This history is drawn from many years of research, from the author's personal memories, and from careful study of the battalion's Command Chronologies and Combat After-action Reports and other historical records. Most importantly it includes a collection of true stories told to the author by dozens of U.S. Marines who served in and fought with 1/5 during the Vietnam War, at all levels of the Chain of Command. This book hunkers down with the Mud Marines of Charlie One Five, a small but determined band of American fighting men, and their very human and often painful stories of combat cover a wide range of scenarios and situations. Follow the Marines of 1/5 as they are lulled by the exotic and beautiful countryside, trudge through swamps, jungles, mountains, and rice paddies for seemingly endless days, and struggle to stay alert during their cautious passage through the extreme terrain and weather conditions of this incredibly scenic but deceptive land, only to be shattered by sudden and deadly attacks from Viet Cong snipers, ambushes, and command-detonated bombs. Despite the overwhelming odds against them, the Marines of Charlie One Five always emerge victorious in every battle they fight.

In Four Decades On, historians, anthropologists, and literary critics examine the legacies of the Second Indochina War, or what most Americans call the Vietnam War, nearly forty years after the United States finally left Vietnam. They address matters such as the daunting tasks facing the Vietnamese at the war's end-including rebuilding a nation and consolidating a socialist revolution while fending off China and the Khmer Rouge-and "the Vietnam syndrome," the cynical, frustrated, and pessimistic sense that colored America's views of the rest of the world after its humiliating defeat in Vietnam. The contributors provide unexpected perspectives on Agent Orange, the POW/MIA controversies, the commercial trade relationship between the United States and Vietnam, and representations of the war and its aftermath produced by artists, particularly writers. They show how the war has continued to affect not only international relations but also the everyday lives of millions of people around the world. Most of the contributors take up matters in the United States, Vietnam, or both nations, while several utilize transnational analytic frameworks, recognizing that the war's legacies shape and are shaped by dynamics that transcend the two countries. Contributors. Alex Bloom, Diane Niblack Fox, H. Bruce Franklin, Walter Hixson, Heonik Kwon, Scott Laderman, Mariam B. Lam, Ngo Vinh Long, Edwin A. Martini, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Christina Schwenkel, Charles Waugh

Whispering Death . . . is a shattering account of an eighteen-year old aviator from the streets of America to Vietnam, into the Macomb world of a Secret War run by the CIA, fought with clandestine forces, the Hmong hill people, and a vast and varied air armada. "This is a book that must be read . . . I highly recommend this book for knowledge of how the Secret War in Laos was fought and why we owe the Hmong so much." Harry C. Aderholt - Brigadier General USAF, Ret. "A superb tale of aviation adventure in the combat skies of Southeast Asia woven with extraordinary skill. Discover the Hmong hill tribesmen of Laos to be courageous, freedom-loving fighters. Read the first-hand accounts of their struggle and exodus after being abandoned by their American ally. This is a gripping, personal story from a new perspective. A must-read for fans of military aviation during the Vietnam War era." Larry Sanborn - Raven FAC - call sign: Sandy . . . Our Journey with the Hmong in the Secret War for Laos shadows the struggle of the Lao-Hmong people, who chose to ally with the Americans in their Secret War, suffered the brutality of combat for over a decade, and then endured the ultimate betrayal of the American government. "One of the most comprehensive and fascinating books ever written about America's most covert war. It embodies the desperate fight for freedom these Americans and Hmong faced together, bound as eternal brothers and sisters. And in the end how an American government left my people to die alone." Yang Chee, President, Lao-Hmong American Coalition

Established during World War II to advise the President regarding the strategic direction of the armed forces of the United States, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) continued in existence after the war, and as military advisers and planners, have played a significant role in the development of national policy. Knowledge of JCS relations with the President, the National Security Council, and the Secretary of Defense in the years since World War II is essential to an understanding of their current work. An account of their activity in peacetime and during crises provides, moreover, an important series of chapters in the military history of the United States. For these reasons, the Joint Chiefs of Staff directed that an official history be written for the record. Its value for instructional purposes, for the orientation of officers newly assigned to the JCS organization and as a source of information for staff studies, will be readily recognized. Written to complement The Joint Chiefs of Staff and National Policy series, The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the War in Vietnam focuses upon the activities of the Joint Chiefs that were concerned with the conflicts in Indochina and later Vietnam. The nature of the activities of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the sensitivity of the sources used caused the volumes of the series to be written as classified documents. Classification designations in the footnotes are those that appeared in the classified publication. This three-part volume describes JCS activities related to the Vietnam War during the period 1960-1968. Originally, the volume was written as a collaborative effort by members of the Historical Division; each part is being updated and published separately. In the preface, Dr. Graham Cosmas discusses the general nature of the revisions that he made in updating the text. Dr. David Armstrong edited the revised version of Part Three; Ms. Susan Carroll compiled the Index; and Ms. Penny Norman prepared the manuscript for publication. The volume was reviewed for declassification by the appropriate US Government departments and agencies and cleared for release. The volume is an official publication of the Joint Chiefs of Staff but, inasmuch as the text has not been considered by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it must be construed as descriptive only and does not constitute the official position of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on any subject.

In the popular imagination, opposition to the Vietnam War was driven largely by college students and elite intellectuals, while supposedly reactionary blue-collar workers largely supported the war effort. In Hardhats, Hippies, and Hawks, Penny Lewis challenges this collective memory of class polarization. Through close readings of archival documents, popular culture, and media accounts at the time, she offers a more accurate "counter-memory" of a diverse, cross-class opposition to the war in Southeast Asia that included the labor movement, working-class students, soldiers and veterans, and Black Power, civil rights, and Chicano activists.

Lewis investigates why the image of antiwar class division gained such traction at the time and has maintained such a hold on popular memory since. Identifying the primarily middle-class culture of the early antiwar movement, she traces how the class interests of its first organizers were reflected in its subsequent forms. The founding narratives of class-based political behavior, Lewis shows, were amplified in the late 1960s and early 1970s because the working class, in particular, lacked a voice in the public sphere, a problem that only increased in the subsequent period, even as working-class opposition to the war grew. By exposing as false the popular image of conservative workers and liberal elites separated by an unbridgeable gulf, Lewis suggests that shared political attitudes and actions are, in fact, possible between these two groups.

The Marines in Vietnam, 1954 - 1973, an anthology and Annotated Bibliography, based on articles that appeared in the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, Naval Review, and Marine Corps Gazette, has served well for 14 years as an interim reference on the Vietnam War. In 1974, events in Vietnam and the appearance of additional significant articles in the three periodicals have made both the anthology and bibliography somewhat dated. This expanded edition extends the coverage of the anthology to 1975 and the entries in the bibliography to 1984.

This book is about the unseen Shadow War that occurred between 1968 and 1976. It was written to honor those who served our country and didn't come back. They may have been ignored or denied by the "Powers That Be," but they will live in my heart and my nightmares as long as I live. The profits from the sale of this book will go to help homeless veterans. Reading this book will open a new world for you -- The world of Special Intelligence Operations. From Viet Nam to Cambodia to Laos and North Viet Nam the action will show you why so many veterans from the Viet Nam War have PTSD. The potential for recurring nightmares will be apparent. Next you will take a trip from Libya to Spain to Italy and Romania. You will find out that the war against terror did not start in 2001. The following exert will demonstrate what Inside the World of Mirrors is all about. In 1974, I met and was briefed by a "Mr. Martin," a high level individual from the American Embassy in Rome, Italy, on an operation to insure that a particular individual would not continue funding communist political activities in Italy. He was a bag man for the KGB. It was less than two months until a very important election was to take place. He was spreading money around to help the communist political candidates get elected. I was simply told "Make Him Stop" They gave me carte blanche to get it done. Anytime in the next seven days would be just fine. This was only one of the 83 missions ran by a Special Intelligence Operative code named the Iceman

Sometimes people do the wrong things for the right reasons. The author admits that to be the "story of his life" and openly shares much of it in this book. Although the book is largely an historically based auto-biography, it is part fact and part fiction. In cases where identities needed to be protected, the "facts" necessary to that end are changed but without altering the accuracy of the description of the event or its historical significance. It is a personal story. It is a cowboy-warrior's story told in a cowboy-warrior's language. It is the story of one man's journey from bondage to freedom and from slavery to liberty. It is the gritty story of this man's life-long education in the school of hard knocks as his journey took him from a sharecropper's shack, through the rodeo arena and the boxing ring, across the football field and the drilling rig floor, into the Marines and two wars and ultimately culminating in the university laboratory and classroom (the most dangerous of all the aforementioned places). Although woven around the experiences and adventures of one man, it is also the story of the people who lived during the period of time in American history that an entire generation was betrayed It is the story of the dramatically changing times in which this personal odyssey took place. It is the story of the betrayal of an entire generation of Americans and particularly the 40% (of the military aged males) of that generation that fought the Vietnam war. The story is told mostly in the form vignettes-short scenes of a particular moment or event. Some are significant. Many are trivial. Some are humorous. Others are heart breaking--even nightmarish. But when sequenced, they tell a story that has a theme. They chronicle an odyssey-an intellectual journey that begins with the author's self-contradictory and delusional rationalizations for some of the horrible things that he did in the name of "mother, God and country" and ends with the realization that they were, indeed, horrible. The conclusions are not mere "visions in the night." They are a result of a very difficult process of shaking a lifetime of authoritarian indoctrination. Some segments of the book will likely be interpreted as "whining" or "self-pity" and they probably are. But it is also a story of love, hate, happiness, sadness, anger, complacency, adventure, excitement, boredom, bravery, fear, duty, tyranny, incompetence, empire building, honor, cowardice, heroism and yes, betrayal. The book is the product of a lifetime of experience and reflection with a little research and a healthy portion of labored discipline added. It was written with the white heat of passion that occurs during the moment when the world comes into focus for the first time. It will bring your world into better focus.

This is my story, "My Vietnam 1965" The actual Vietnam troop war began with first troops sent in February 1965 followed by the second troop entrance, May 1965. Technically, the war began in 1963 and ended in 1973. The first two years, from 1963 to early 1965, was called a "Police action" and was with "advisors" and not with ground troops. We, the Machinegun Squad, First Platoon, Charlie Company, First Battalion, Fourth Marine Regiment (Reinforced), Third Marine Division, landed in the Chu Lai South Vietnam as the second major insertion of troops sent into Vietnam. We landed under light resistance rifle fire on 7 May, 1965. We were at Chu Lai, only fifty miles south of Da Nang. I now have a better appreciation and insight of how it really was. You have done an extraordinary job in descriptions of the events that happen. Even though they must have been hard emotionally to deal with. The photographs were very helpful.

This is the fourth volume in a planned 10-volume operational and chronological series covering the Marine Corps' participation in the Vietnam War. This volume concentrates on the ground was in I Corps and III MAF's perspective of the Vietnam War as an entity. It also covers the Marine Corps participation in the advisory effort, the operations of the two Special Landing Forces of the U. S. Navy's Seventh Fleet, and the services of Marines with the staff of the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. There are additional chapters on supporting arms and logistics, and a discussion of the Marine role in Vietnam in relation to the overall American effort.

(Rated R) Wild Crazy Absolutely INSANE people in charge of our national security in the Vietnam War A story of Army Security Agency agents in the Vietnam War in 1968. From the draft, basic training and spy training to the war. Their lives and loves are exposed and the characters come together to accomplish their missions on the ground, air and water. The outcome of the war may depend on what may be described as "M*A*S*H" meets "Catch 22" in this action packed adventure. Includes shocking new theory on the capture of the U.S.S. Pueblo Action packed chapter on using Swift Boats as spy platforms. Since the cracking of the "Enigma Code" the deadliest weapon has been code breakers. These unlikely warriors make the difference in every war since. This story shows these soldier boys at play in the ASA. They are both sentinels and shooters engaged in top secret missions. The first novel in a quatrain. Watch for the next in the series "The Men Behind The Iron Curtain." It is about the Army Security Agency in Europe during the Cold War. To be released later this year. "The Dragon Hunters," a story about the ASA in Asia, will be released next year. The fourth novel has been started but has not yet been named. The writing of the screenplay for "We Served In Silence" is in production. Buy your collector's copy today of this first issue of a story which can not be told in one book. Publisher and editor Mrs. Glenn Fannin (E. Jo Fannin). Rated (R) for violence and explicit sexual content.

Chosen for 2015 One Book One Nebraska In 1961, equipped with a master's degree from famed Columbia Journalism School and letters of introduction to Associated Press bureau chiefs in Asia, twenty-six-year-old Beverly Deepe set off on a trip around the world. Allotting just two weeks to South Vietnam, she was still there seven years later, having then earned the distinction of being the longest-serving American correspondent covering the Vietnam War and garnering a Pulitzer Prize nomination. In Death Zones and Darling Spies, Beverly Deepe Keever describes what it was like for a farm girl from Nebraska to find herself halfway around the world, trying to make sense of one of the nation's bloodiest and bitterest wars. She arrived in Saigon as Vietnam's war entered a new phase and American helicopter units and provincial advisers were unpacking. She tells of traveling from her Saigon apartment to jungles where Wild West-styled forts first dotted Vietnam's borders and where, seven years later, they fell like dominoes from communist-led attacks. In 1965 she braved elephant grass with American combat units armed with unparalleled technology to observe their valor-and their inability to distinguish friendly farmers from hide-and-seek guerrillas. Keever's trove of tissue-thin memos to editors, along with published and unpublished dispatches for New York and London media, provide the reader with you-are-there descriptions of Buddhist demonstrations and turning-point coups as well as phony ones. Two Vietnamese interpreters, self-described as "darling spies," helped her decode Vietnam's shadow world and subterranean war. These memoirs, at once personal and panoramic, chronicle the horrors of war and a rise and decline of American power and prestige.

High quality reprint of this recently declassified 1977 study. This report is the fourth in a series of CHECO reports on the ROE, summarizing significant events and changes which occurred between October 1972 and August 1973. Throughout this period, the operating authorities formulated by the JCS were in most cases directly related to the peace negotiations conducted in Paris between the United States and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV). Consequently, this report accounts for changes in the ROE, chronologically, as they applied to the different areas of SEA: The Republic of Vietnam (RVN), North Vietnam (NVN), Laos, and Cambodia. This presentation not only provides the reader with significant changes in the ROE between October 1972 and August 1973, but also portrays the close relationship between national policy and the conduct of air operations in SEA. The intensity of bombing, the number of sorties authorized, and the territorial restrictions were constantly changed, particularly through January 1973. Specifically, they followed the negotiating trends and the sincerity, or the lack of it, with which the North Vietnamese approached peace negotiations. These negotiations culminated in the signing of the "Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam" on 27 January 1973 in Paris. Because these changes would be less significant to the reader without some prior knowledge of the ROE, this chapter provides a brief summary of the ROE as they stood in September 1972.

U.S. Marines as advisors have a long history, from Presley O'Bannon atTripoli through Iraq and Afghanistan via Haiti, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, and Vietnam. While most Marines think of the Vietnamese Marine Corps as the primary advisory experience during that conflict, others served with various other advisory programs with the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Joint Special Operations, and U.S. Civil Operations and Rural Development Support. One of these is the subject of this study: Marine advisors with the Vietnamese Provincial Reconnaissance Units (PRUs). This narrative is a combination of experience, research, and reflection. While other journalistic or academic accounts have been published, this is a narrative of participants. Many historians consider the two most effective counterinsurgency organizations employed during the Vietnam War to have been the PRU and USMC Combined Action Platoons (CAP). In both cases, U.S. Marines played a significant role in the success of these innovative programs. It should be pointed out, however, that the number of U.S. Marines assigned to these programs was small and the bulk of the forces were locally recruited fighters. Both programs used a small cadre of Marines providing leadership, training, and combat support for large numbers of indigenous troops, and in so doing, capitalized on the inherent strengths of each. The author believes that both of these programs have applicability in any counterinsurgency where U.S. forces are called upon to assist a host government. Obviously, adjustments to these programs would have to be made to take into account local conditions, but the core concept of providing U.S. Marines to command or advise local militia and special police units is one that has great promise for success. With a clear understanding of why the PRUs and CAPs worked, and with the necessary adjustments to take into account local conditions, similar units can be created to defeat future insurgencies. With this in mind, the author hopes that this work will provide U.S. military planners with insights into creating and managing units capable of defeating a well-organized and highly motivated insurgent political infrastructure

High quality reprint of this recently declassified 1975 study. The Air Staff tasked Project CHECO to write continuing reports on counterinsurgency in Thailand. Normally, the first work in a continuing report series describes the overall situation, and subsequent reports provide annual or biannual updates. Underlying details about the Thai insurgency, however, have slowly been coming to light over the past few years, therefore, counterinsurgency has necessarily continued to evolve and past CHECO works on counterinsurgency have been limited to reporting the specific end events of force and counter force. This study attempts to delimit the background to the Thai insurgency and counterinsurgency. Preliminary surveys of the literature and data available indicated that insurgency and counterinsurgency in Thailand have been well documented but that pertinent information is scattered throughout a multitude of separate reports and studies by many agencies. Consequently, one must read numerous publications to become enlightened on all but the most narrowly focused insurgency/counterinsurgency topics. This report attempts to integrate in one volume for the staff officer a broad background and wide perspective of insurgency and counterinsurgency in Thailand. It extracts from many of the completed works and indicates where more detail can be found. It avoids duplicating lengthy explanations already published, avoids citing detailed statistics on armed conflict which are all too often misleading indicators, and avoids discussing personalities which have been important but are left to more exhaustive studies. Due to the nature of its comprehensive approach, this report only indicates the complexities of the Thai insurgency/counterinsurgency and sketches in broadest terms the cultural heritage of the Thai.

High quality reprint of this recently declassified 1972 study. Interdiction of the overland flow of supplies from North Vietnam to Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam and Cambodia was a primary mission for American airpower in Southeast Asia (SEA). The primary target for air interdiction was the supply system in North Vietnam (NVN), until the bombing halt there shifted the emphasis to the logistic channel in southern Laos, the Steel Tiger area of operations. The interdiction campaigns there bore the name Commando Hunt with numerical designations that changed with the semiannual monsoon shift. Commando Hunt VI, the third southwest-monsoon, or wet-season, campaign, covered the period 15 May through 31 October 1971. The past pattern had been for the enemy to move supplies through Steel Tiger into the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) when the weather in Laos was relatively dry. Some of these supplies had been moved through Cambodia en route to RVN; since the deposition of Prince Sihanouk in 1970, the enemy needed to use supplies against the Cambodian government as well as against RVN. With the onset of the wet season, as the road system in Laos became a quagmire, the enemy shifted his emphasis to stockpiling materiel in the NVN border areas to prepare for a logistics surge through Laos during the next dry season. The sanctuary given the enemy by the NVN bombing halt enabled him to get a running start for the dry season. Commando Hunt VI came on the heels of the most successful dry season campaign to date, whether judged in terms of greatest observed bomb damage, lowest throughput-to-input ratio, or lowest total throughput. Thus enemy activity could be expected to be at a higher level than during previous wet seasons, in order to supply his forces in the RVN and Cambodia.

The History Division has undertaken the publication of various studies, theses, compilations, bibliographies, monographs, and memoirs, as well as proceedings at selected workshops, seminars, symposia, and similar colloquia, which it considers to be of significant value for audiences interested in Marine Corps history. These "Occasional Papers," which are chosen for their intrinsic worth, must reflect structured research, present a contribution to historical knowledge not readily available in published sources, and reflect original content on the part of the author, compiler, or editor. It is the intent of the division that these occasional papers be distributed to select institutions such as service schools, official Department of Defense historical agencies, and directly concerned Marine Corps organizations, so the information contained therein will be available for study and exploitation.

In early May 1961, a U.S. military aircraft taxied toward a well-guarded terminal building. The plane slowed to a halt; steps were maneuvered up to its side, and the door was pulled open. The tropical night air was heavy and dank, and the moon shone dimly through high thin clouds. On board the aircraft were ninety-two members of a specially selected team. The men were dressed in indistinguishable dark suits with white shirts and dark ties, and each man carried a new red U.S. diplomatic passport inside his breast pocket. The men held copies of their orders and records in identical brown Manila envelopes, and each man's medical records were stamped "If injured or killed in combat, report as training accident in the Philippines."

In such clandestine fashion, the first fully operational U.S. military unit arrived at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in South Vietnam. The unit was so highly classified even its name was top-secret. It was given a codename, a cover identity to hide the true nature of its mission. The unit's operation was housed in a heavily-guarded compound near Saigon, and within two days of its arrival, Phase I was implemented. Its operatives were intercepting Viet Cong manual Morse communications, analyzing it for the intelligence it contained and passing the information to the U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group-Vietnam. The Army Security Agency was on duty.

The Vietnam War tells the story of one of the most divisive episodes in modern American history through primary sources, ranging from government documents, news reports, speeches, popular songs to memoirs, writings by Vietnam veterans (including coauthor John Fitzgerald), and poetry by Vietnamese and Americans on matching themes. The book begins in the 19th century when Vietnam became a French colony, and traces the insidious route by which the United States became involved in a war on the other side of the world.

American Baby Boomers--of the 1960's--are often portrayed in the media as either in the mud of Woodstock or in the mud of Vietnam. The truth is, just a small percentage--3% total--were in either place. Most Baby Boomers were living normal lives doing normal things. But for those who took an active part in the Cold War--which we won--and which included Vietnam--this book is dedicated to you. Book includes the records of the 13-man STAT TEAMS (later known as Seabee Teams) that served in Vietnam. The Navy Seabees were some of the first to show up for Vietnam's struggle against communism. In 1954, President Ngo Dinh Diem wrote a letter to President Eisenhower asking for military and economic aid. In 1954 and 1955 an estimated one million refugees (mostly persecuted Catholics) moved from the Communist State of North Vietnam to the south (8% of the North's population). The Seabees assisted them during their "Passage to Freedom." In 1956, Seabees were assigned to survey Vietnam's roads. There weren't many. The Seabees travelled by jeep and on foot with pack-mules. The surveyors found that the bombers of World War II, the guerrillas of Viet Minh, and the newly emerging guerrilla groups of the Viet Cong had destroyed most of the bridges and sabotaged what few roads were left. Beginning in 1963, Seabee Teams, with Secret Clearances, arrived in Vietnam to assist the U.S. Army's Special Forces in the CIA funded Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) program, and to help the Vietnamese help themselves. The Seabees constructed Special Forces Camps and outposts, airfields for the SF STOL-class Caribou aircraft, and built connecting roads. These Seabee Teams also helped the Vietnamese to better their living conditions through thousands of projects in rural areas. The Seabee Teams in Vietnam also earned Purple Hearts, Silver Stars, Bronze Stars and many other medals. One Seabee Team member, Marvin Sheilds, earned the Congressional Medal Of Honor while fighting alongside with the Special Forces at Dong Xoi. In 1963, only approximately 10,000 Americans were in Vietnam and very little infrastructure existed. This was before the eventual arrival of 2.1 million--over time--Americans. Given the limited infrastructure--with hardly any ports, roads and airstrips--it would have been near impossible to get the 2.1 million eventual Americans--along with their equipment (Beans, Bullets, And Black Oil)--delivered to South Vietnam and support them. Many Vietnam Vets--including this writer--showed up after 1965. Most of us took it for granted that the air bases we landed in, roads we drove on, helo-pads we mounted out from and the camps we lived in, or passed through, and the water and food and fuel storage were somehow always there--or most likely didn't give it a thought. But long before we arrived, military and civilian engineers were busy preparing the "ground" to make it possible to fight a war; and begin attempts to win the hearts and minds of the South Vietnamese. A recent travel guide to Vietnam mentioned the superior roads and infrastructure in the Southern portion of Vietnam--as opposed to North Vietnam-- due to the American presence there during the Vietnam War. --Kenneth E. Bingham, Seabee volunteer, Feb, 2013

A Top Secret Story of Unparalleled Heroism... Staff Sergeant Larry FitzGerald, aka "Reaper 6," of the U.S. Army Special Forces, led a special Black Ops team deployed to Vietnam in 1965. He reported to only two men: General Westmoreland and General Abrams, who were in command of the U.S. Armed Forces. His first assignment-a suicidal mission to assassinate four enemy generals in Laos who were planning the 1967 Tet invasion-was never disclosed to the media or the public. General Westmoreland stated that Sergeant FitzGerald deserved the Medal of Honor, and nine additional Purple Hearts, but unfortunately, most of his missions were conducted across the fence of South Vietnam, in Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam. In fact, all of his missions were classified, clandestine, and denied. They have not been disclosed until now. Reaper 6 is the only biography of this extraordinary soldier's life, capturing the very sights, sounds, and smells of the Vietnam War. Today, Larry is the proverbial "last man standing" of 89 souls who went where lesser soldiers shouldn't dare.

The Mad Fragger and Me relates the true experiences of a U.S. Army lieutenant throughout his training, culminating in a tour as an Infantry Rifle Platoon Leader in Vietnam. This is an articulate, sometimes graphically violent and often humorous account of the grunts in The Famous 2nd Platoon, who struggled to dominate the Quang Ngai Province elements of the North Vietnamese Army in 1971.