THE SHOCKING TRUTH REVEALED A blistering, firsthand account of an American Soldier who joined forces with the Montagnards WHILE LOSING THE WAR AGAINST NORTH VIETNAM, ARVN TROOPS CONDUCTED A SECRET PROGRAM OF GENOCIDE AGAINST THE MONTAGNARD HILL PEOPLE. THE U.S. ARMY DIDN'T INTERVENE. THE GLOBAL MEDIA DIDN'T NOTICE. BUT THE 'YARDS WEREN'T ALONE. A HANDFUL OF GREEN BERETS FOUGHT AT THEIR SIDE...

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.

The title of this book reflects that it is a book about being locked up with God. This happened to me during the Vietnam War. I was an American prisoner of war - P.O.W. I spent over five years in a prison, and there I was with God and only God besides a few cellmates. This is mainly a book of the speeches I have given over the last decade or so that reflect my experience as a war prisoner. I have integrated the stories and experience of this period of my life with the faith and experiences of my life since. The talks have been transcribed and placed together here. I have refined and polished them. Some are shorter than others because of the various time constraints. I have selected what I felt were my best. They have been sorted by category as the table of contents reflects. However, I placed the first in its own category and titled it My General Talk. This is the one I most commonly give. It gives a good general overview of my experiences in the Vietnam War and my total dependence on and trust in the Maker. The second category titled Faith all relate to deep spiritual truths that I have grown to love and respect because of my initial experiences as a POW. To get through five years in a prison camp under horrible conditions was a real journey of faith. I returned to this country an entirely different man. I had grown in my faith. I had learned how to trust God, to love Him and to forgive others. These talks reflect what being locked up with God for five years did to me. The third category titled Family and Manhood reflect what has occurred to me and what I hold out as ideal in regard to being a man and a father and husband of a family. I have been through much in my lifetime. I have had and raised a large family. I am now old and have had time to reflect what is important and what means the most. I have also made many mistakes in my life and only by the grace of God have made it to this point and still have a family. This category is given to help young men get off to a good start. The best way to learn is by experience. That is, the experience of others who have been through it and made all the mistakes one can possibly make. This is the case with me. I am offering these three speeches to all young men so that they can profit by my life of having to learn the hard way. If young men can read these, they won't have to fall and struggle as I have had to do. They can fly high and have a very productive life being a man and, if called, also a father and husband of a family. The final category of talks titled War and Patriotism include those that give more detailed stories of my combat and POW experiences in South and North Vietnam. This war is history and most don't even remember it, but reflecting on a war and hearing what a person has experienced who lived through one can help anyone to grow in love of country. The reader can also learn much in case they are ever called to be in a war. Being in the military is a vocation all by itself. It is a vocation of love because a soldier is ready to lay down his or her life for another wherever they are called to serve their country. A soldier must be ready to not only die for others but also suffer as I did and many others did in an enemy prisoner of war compound. This category also includes a talk about leadership. This will help any young man or woman know what it takes to be a great leader. There is also a speech about Lance Sijan and one that was given at an Air Force Base to honor two other Medal of Honor winners, Bud Day and Leo Thorsness. Reflecting about the life of real heroes always does a soldier good, for all soldiers are called to be heroes in their vocation of love. I hope and pray that this book helps our country be great and remain great for ages to come. I will soon die as all do, but words never die. My hope is that these words will go on helping my American brothers and sisters keep America great. May God bless you and our country forever. Amen.

19: I never had a birthday in Vietnam was written to show how the guys out in the field lived from day to day and not knowing if it was going to be their last day. There's some laughter, sorrow, feeling so down that taking a bullet to end it didn't seem so bad. Guys are guys and the nineteen to twenty four year olds that were in Vietnam were a little more intense than most. Living with death day to day is something only another combat soldier would understand. This was written to get the reader to understand that.

Pictorial account of the preparation and transportation of the CIA A-12 Blackbird from the SkunkWorks in Burbank, California to Area 51.

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 times of crisis 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 events in Vietnam during these years. The nature of the activities of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the sensitivity of the sources used caused the volume to be written originally as a classified document. Classification designations are those that appeared in the classified publication. This volume describes those JCS activities related to developments in Vietnam during the period 1964-1966. At times, the role of the Joint Chiefs in events in Vietnam may appear to be submerged in the description of foreign relations, politics, economics, and other areas having little to do with military matters. However, developments in these areas provide essential background for understanding the military activity of the 1960s. Originally a collaborative effort of the entire Historical Section, JCS, the classified publication on which this volume is based was written by Mr. Willard J. Webb. The current version has been updated by Dr. Graham A. Cosmas. Dr. John F. Shortal edited the resulting manuscript; 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.

This is a narrative drawn from the era of the Southeast Asian conflict, detailing a unique event in that lengthy struggle called Linebacker II. For the first time in contemporary warfare, heavy jet bombers were employed for their designed role to conduct extended strategic operations against the warmaking capacity of a hostile nation. This monograph tells part of the story of Strategic Air Command's participation in Linebacker II. In doing so it addressed the efforts of a complex mixture of Air Force and sister service operations, with all service working in concern towards a common goal. Rather than develop a complete chronology or blow-by-blow account, which are matters of record in other works, the campaign is pursued more form the personal perspective. Office of Air Force History. United States Air Force.

The untold tale of the first year of the Centaurs in Vietnam as told through the eyes of air cavalry helicopter pilots and grunts who built a troop from the ground up at Cu Chi based on teamwork, fighting ability, and guts. Climb aboard their Huey for an up close and personal account of the war.

Not your typical war story, this book captures an unvarnished account of how the Army formed an air cavalry troop in early 1966. "Rookies to war," the pilots were plucked out of the skies of places like Fort Rucker, Alabama, and joined by troopers from across America to fight a guerilla war in the jungles and rice paddies of Vietnam. There were no field manuals for this war, and air cavalry was just a glimmer in the eyes of reconnaissance, infantry, and artillery units.

This is the story of one year of the storied 25th Infantry Division, 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry that left the paradise of Hawaii's shores for the heat, rain, mud, and guerilla warfare of Vietnam. The combination of helicopters, infantry, and a Long Range Reconnaissance Platoon (LRRP) makes for compelling reading as you follow the lives and battles of 30 different contributors.

There are stories of bravery and fear, ingenuity and innovation, humor and sadness, boredom and electrifying insertions and extractions of LRRP teams. In the end, you will grasp the brotherhood of war and appreciate the sacrifices of those that serve in the name of freedom.

This is the fourth volume in a planned 10-volume operational and chronological series covering the U.S. Marine Corps' participation in the Vietnam War. A separate topical series will complement the operational histories. This volume details the change in focus of the III Marine Amphibious Force (III MAF), which fought in South Vietnam's northernmost corps area, I Corps. III MAF, faced with a continued threat in 1967 of North Vietnamese large unit entry across the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Vietnams, turned over the Chu Lai enclave to the U .S. Army's Task Force Oregon and shifted the bulk of its forces-and its attention-northward. Throughout the year, the 3d Marine Division fought a conventional, large-unit war against the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) near the demilitarized zone. The 1st Marine Division, concentrated in Thua Thien and Quang Nam provinces, continued both offensive and pacification operations. Its enemy ranged from small groups of Viet Cong guerrillas in hamlets and villages up to formations as large as the 2d NVA Division. The 1st Marine Aircraft Wing provided air support to both divisions, as well as Army and allied units in I Corps. The Force Logistic Command, amalgamated from all Marine logistics organizations in Vietnam, served all, major Marine commands. This volume, like its predecessors, concentrates on the ground war in I Corps and II I 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. The nature of the war facing III MAF during 1967 forced the authors to concentrate on major operations, particularly those characterized by heavy combat. The uneven quality of the official reports submitted by combat units also played a role in selecting the materials presented in this volume. This is not meant to slight those whose combat service involved long, hot days on patrol, wearying hours of perimeter defense, an d innumerable operations, named and un-named . These Marines also endured fights just as deadly as the ones against large enemy regular units. III MAF's combat successes in 1967 came from the efforts of all Americans in I Corps.

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.

During the Vietnam War, when conventional warfare tactics weren't proving enough to eliminate Communist insurgency, the U.S. Army implemented small unit operations to take a new kind of fight to the enemy. Five to six man Long Range Patrol teams, composed of specially trained young enlisted soldiers, went behind enemy lines to gather intelligence on Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army units, capture POWs, or set deadly ambushes that unnerved the enemy in their once-thought-secure jungle sanctuaries. These Long Range Patrol or LRP teams would lead to the re-establishment of the 75th Infantry Ranger Companies in combat and would carry on the proud history and legacy of the U.S. Army Rangers. It would also earn them a coveted place in special operations units, at times at a painful and deadly cost. In this remarkably humble, first-hand account, Seymour covers what it took to do 54 LRP/Ranger missions behind the lines, and the dozens of team insertions and white knuckle extractions that he took part in. In The Jungle... Camping with the Enemy offers a unique and personal insight from an extraordinary soldier and those who served as LRP/Rangers with the U.S. Army First Air Cavalry Division.

The Vietnam War stands uneasily on the edge of public memory - slipping into the past and becoming part of our national history, yet still too recent to be forgotten by those who lived through its trials. But history seeks a meaning in its clouded events, a retrospective order and pattern that could instruct, and sometimes even inspire, successive generations. At present, then, Americans face the peculiar dilemma of having to respond to the impact of a war for which there is still no comprehensively shared vision. One cannot expect broad enthusiasm for a vision of the past whose primary purpose is to justify current policies, acquisitions, deployment, and research. Americans have thought of themselves as individualistic and unruly people - a flattering self-image, though in some ways a false one. Indeed, during the Vietnam War it was the patience and long-suffering of the American people that most deserved comment. This was not the first war to fact great protest and challenge from Americans. Opposition to a massive commitment that was killing young Americans, as well as many Southeast Asians, should hardly have seemed surprising. What should have caused real surprise was how long it took for opposition to coalesce. In the end, the Vietnam experience ought to remind us of how well Americans can rally to a cause, even when it is poorly conceived and executed. But these are not the lessons of Vietnam. They are only illustrations of how we may come to different understandings of the Vietnam experience. The central lesson is that even when we cannot control the circumstances around us, we can still control ourselves. The use of military and political resources to have our way is not only a practical and technical issue, it is also a philosophical and moral one. It may be worth asking if we have ever won a war by betraying our own traditions and values. In this study, Dr. Donald J. Mrozek probes various groups of Americans as they come to grips with the consequences of the Vietnam War. He poses far more questions that he answers, and some of what he says may invite strong dissent. Yet it will serve its purpose if something here provokes creative thinking and critical reexamination, even of some long-cherished ideas. Viewing the Vietnam War as a logical outcome of American defense thinking has challenging implications, as does seeing the "cold war consensus" on foreign affairs as an oddity. Yet this is not a litany of objection and protest. Doctor Mrozek raises serious questions about how the contemporary notion of deterrence has emerged; and dealing with such questions forthrightly could make deterrence more effective. So, too, questions the past relationship of military professionals with the mass media is not an assignment of guilt but an invitation to develop a beneficial and cooperative relationship. Nor is this study a tale of gloom and despair; it is rather an appeal for self-consciousness and self-awareness. It is a plea for us to take command of the problems that beset us by taking control of ourselves first.

This is the first of a series of nine chronological histories being prepared by the Marine Corps History and Museums Division to cover the entire span of Marine Corps involvement in the Vietnam conflict. This particular volume covers a relatively obscure chapter in U.S. Marine Corps history-the activities of Marines in Vietnam between 1954 and 1964. The narrative traces the evolution of those activities from a one-man advisory operation at the conclusion of the French-Indochina War in 1954 to the advisory and combat support activities of some 700 Marines at the end of 1964. As the introductory volume for the series this account has an important secondary objective: to establish a geographical, political, and military foundation upon which the subsequent histories can be developed.

This is the second volume in a series of nine chronological histories being prepared by the Marine Corps History and Museums Division to cover the entire span of Marine Corps involvement in the Vietnam War. This volume details the Marine activities during 1965, the year the war escalated and major American combat units were committed to the conflict. The narrative traces the landing of the nearly 5,000-man 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade and its transformation into the Ill Marine Amphibious Force, which by the end of the year contained over 38,000 Marines. During this period, the Marines established three enclaves in South Vietnam's northernmost corps area, I Corps, and their mission expanded from defense of the Da Nang Airbase to a balanced strategy involving base defense, offensive operations, and pacification. This volume continues to treat the activities of Marine advisors to the South Vietnamese armed forces but in less detail than its predecessor volume, U. S. Marines in Vietnam, 1954-1964, The Advisory and Combat Assistance Era.

U.S. Marines as advisors have a long history, from Presley O'Bannon at Tripoli 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.

The author first served with Vietnamese Marines in 1972 when they came on board the U.S. Navy ships that Battalion Landing Team 1/9 was embarked on. They were preparing for an amphibious landing to counter the North Vietnamese Army's Spring Offensive in Military Region 1 (I Corps) in South Vietnam. They brought with them their U.S. Marine advisors who were known by the senior members of the battalion. They had already witnessed or heard of the exploits of then-Captain John Ripley and Lieutenant Colonel Gerry Turley in blunting the initial attacks of the Easter Offensive. As the Vietnamese were formed into helicopter or boat teams and fed a meal before going ashore, they bantered with the American Marines and Sailors, telling them to come along to "kill communists." After a turbulent start to the offensive, the Vietnamese Marines exhibited the fighting spirit that elite units create for themselves. This was reflected in the various names of their battalions that were the focus of their unit identification. The infantry battalions had a series of nicknames and slogans that were reflected on their unit insignia: 1st Battalion's "Wild Bird," 2d Battalion's "Crazy Buffalo," 3d Battalion's "SeaWolf," 4th Battalion's "Killer Shark," 5th Battalion's "Black Dragon," 6th Battalion's "Sacred Bird," 7th Battalion's "Black Tiger," 8th Battalion's "Sea Eagle," and 9th Battalion's "Mighty Tiger." For the artillery units, this was the 1st Battalion's "Lightning Fire," 2d Battalion's "Sacred Arrow," and 3d Battalion's "Sacred Bow." Support and service battalions followed this example as well. The 9th Marine Amphibious Brigade and its embarked troops provided helicopters, amphibious tractors, and landing craft support for a series of attacks leading to the recapture of Quang Tri City through the fall of 1972. In addition, command and control facilities and liaison were provided to the Republic of Vietnam's I Corps and Military Advisory Command Vietnam's 1st Regional Advisory Command in the sustained counteroffensive. This reinforced the impression made by the Vietnamese Marines themselves. This began the interest in the story that follows. The period after World War II saw a number of associated Marine Corps formed in the republics of China, Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand. They had been founded, with the help of foreign military aid, to fight the various conflicts to contain communist expansion in the region. Also present at various times were other Marines from the Netherlands, France, and Great Britain. The beginnings of the Cold War witnessed this proliferation of amphibious forces in Asia, in part because of the reputation the U.S. Marines had earned in the cross Pacific drive against Japan and in other postwar confrontations. This is about one of them, the Vietnamese Marine Corps or Thuy Quan Luc Chien (TQLC). This occasional paper provides documents on the topics of the Vietnamese Marines and the U.S. Marine Advisory Unit from this period.

The Tuesday Club tells the story of thousands of Vietnam Veterans who continue to fight a war that never ends. That war, the war within, is called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The Tuesday Club gives an insider's view of the therapy rooms of VA's across the United States. It tell the horror, the fear, the grief, and the compassion, of a war that alienated an entire generation of men and women from families, each other, and the nation. The Tuesday Club tells the story of the real heroes of Vietnam, those who survived, and daily carry the burden of the trauma of war. "The Tuesday Club, they call themselves, a group of valiant men, Their membership is quite unique, God help those who must attend." Marinell Miller, Ph.D. PTSD Clinical Team Hampton Veterans Affairs Medical Center Hampton, Virginia

This is the eighth volume in a planned 10-volume operational and chronological series covering the Marine Corps' participation in the Vietnam War. A separate topical series will complement the operational histories. This particular volume details the gradual withdrawal in 1970-1971 of Marine combat forces from South Vietnam's northernmost corps area, I Corps, as part of an overall American strategy of turning the ground war against the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong over to the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam. Marines in this period accomplished a number of difficult tasks. The III Marine Amphibious Force transferred most of its responsibilities in I Corps to the Army XXIV Corps, which became the senior U.S. command in that military region. III MAF continued a full range of military and pacification activities within Quang Nam Province, its remaining area of responsibility. Developing its combat and counterinsurgency techniques to their fullest extent, the force continued to protect the city of Da Nang, root out the enemy guerrillas and infrastructure from the country, and prevent enemy main forces from disrupting pacification. At the same time, its strength steadily diminished as Marine s redeployed in a series of increments until, in April 1971, the III Marine Amphibious Force Headquarters itself departed and was replaced for the last month of Marine ground combat by the 3d Marine Amphibious Brigade. During the redeployments, Marine logisticians successfully withdrew huge quantities of equipment and dismantled installation s or turned them over to the South Vietnamese. Yet this was also a time of troubles for Marines. The strains on the Armed Services of a lengthy, inconclusive war and the social and racial conflicts tormenting American society adversely affected Marine discipline and cohesion, posing complex, intractable problems of leadership and command. Marines departed Vietnam with a sense that they had done their duty, but also that they were leaving behind many problems unsolved and tasks not completed.

The Adventures of Space and Hobo tells the story of Ken's vagabond life after Vietnam. It explores the on-the-ground confusion and chaos of the Vietnam War and its effects on a generation, and those who served. Named Space by a new friend, Hobo, Ken and his traveling companion hit the road to partake of all the possibilities of that generation in search of adventure and uncharted experiences. They did this by allowing fate to be their guide while navigating through the spiritual maze of the 1970's as they traveled by freight trains and hitchhiked through our nation's cities. By using their wits and street knowledge they were able to take advantage of the opportunities that came their way. As a couple of hippies travelling through our nation's cities as vagabonds or rolling stones they were looking for the next free ride to nowhere in particular while mooching off of whatever resources or people who happened to come their way. Ken writes in such a way that you are with him at every turn of this amazing journey. Because Ken writes from the perspective of the redeemed, this journey is rich with God's fingerprints at every step of the way. And at a deeper level, while the particulars are Ken's unique story, the journey he describes is one that each of us either has, or must, travel.

Hovering Horizons is the exciting, at times death-defying story of Kenneth Whitley, decorated Vietnam Veteran Cobra pilot. It details how his boyhood in a small Texas town helped create the warrior he became. It takes readers through the many perils and split second decisions that he needed to make to stay alive in Vietnam. It then continues his journey as he flew choppers in Arabia and Africa, where he also met with exciting challenges of a completely different nature. Hovering Horizons is an excellent read for veterans, pilots, thrill-seekers, history buffs, or anyone who has ever wondered what it's like to live (not just travel) all around the world. His unique stories and insights will keep you turning the pages, and when you're finished, you'll wish there were more. It's that intriguing.

Hog's Exit explores the mysterious death in 1982 of Jerry "Hog" Daniels, a former CIA case officer to legendary Hmong leader General Vang Pao during the U.S.'s "secret war" in Laos. Drawing on first-person reminiscences of Daniels's colorful life, Morrison also captures the drama and beauty of the Hmong spirit rituals, as well as the lamentations and suspicions that pervade this unusual funeral ceremony. Americans and Hmong, ranchers and refugees, State Department officials and smokejumpers, share their memories about Daniels: growing up; hunting and fishing in Montana; cheating death in Laos; and carousing in the bars and brothels of Thailand. Hog's Exit provides a fascinating view of a man and the two very different cultures in which he lived.

Among the many horrors of the Vietnam War, some of the most brutal and, until now, least documented were the experiences of the American prisoners of war, many of whom endured the longest wartime captivity, of any POWs in U.S. history. With this book, two of the most respected scholars in the field offer a comprehensive, balanced, and authoritative account of what happened to the nearly eight hundred Americans captured in Southeast Asia. The authors were granted unprecedented access to previously unreleased materials and interviewed over a hundred former POWs, enabling them to meticulously reconstruct the captivity record as well as produce an evocative narrative of a once sketchy and misunderstood, yet key chapter of the war. Powerful and moving in its portrayal of how men sought to cope with physical and psychological ordeals under the most adverse conditions, this landmark study separates fact from fiction. Its analysis of the shifting tactics and temperaments of captive and captor as the war evolved skillfully weaves domestic political developments and battlefield action with prison scenes that alternate between Hanoi's concrete cells, South Vietnam's jungle stockades, and mountain camps in Laos. Giving due praise but never shirking from criticism, the authors describe in gripping detail dozens of cases of individual courage and resistance from celebrated heroes like Jim Stockdale, Robinson Risner, Jeremiah Denton, Bud Day, and Nick Rowe to lesser known legends like Major Ray Schrump and Medal of Honor winner Donald Cook. Along with epic accounts of endurance under torture, breathtaking escape attempts, and remarkable prisoner communication efforts, they also reveal Code of Conduct lapses and instances of outright collaboration with the enemy. Published twenty-five years after Operation Homecoming, which brought home 591 POWs from Vietnam, this tour-de-force history is a compelling and important work that serves as a testament to tile courage, faith, and will of Americans in captivity, as well as a reminder of the sometimes impossible demands made on U.S. servicemen under the Code of Conduct in prisoner of war situations. It is vividly illustrated with maps, prisoners' renderings of camps and torture techniques, and dozens of photographs, many never before published. d and shameful conditions. It includes insightful analyses of the circumstances and conditions of captivity and its varying effects on the prisoners, the strategies and tactics of captors and captives, the differences between captivity in North and South Vietnam and between Laos and Vietnam, and analysis of the quality of the source materials for this and other works on the subject.

The author was an infantry squad leader and platoon sergeant in the famed 101st Airborne Division in the last years of the war in Vietnam. His poems, written often in foxholes and on bunker lines, trace a year-long tour of duty to chronicle the fear, hope, pride, guilt, and frustration of a combat soldier, and the issues of dealing with the experiences of war after separation from service. All profits from the sale of this book will be donated to support the programs of the 506th Airborne Infantry Regiment Association, a nonprofit veterans organization which strongly supports active duty soldiers.