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The Colonels / The Berets / The Generals


W.E.B. Griffin
    Unbound) ISBN-10: 0515098914

The War Before The War


David Lee Corley - 2020
    After several victories, the French Army is dealt its first major defeat by Ho Chi Minh and his Viet Minh rebels. China and Russia wait in the wings, watching America’s resolve.With the French desperately short on troops, weapons, and aircraft, America must wrestle with the decision on how deeply to become involved in the growing conflict in Indochina. Newly elected congressman and war hero, John F. Kennedy, is joined by his siblings, Robert and Patricia, on a fact-finding mission throughout Southeast Asia. His goal – find the truth to prevent America from making a terrible mistake that could have irreparable consequences.Will the Kennedys find the truth and save America from a terrible fate?Rene Granier, former OSS Deer Team member and now CIA officer, is asked to accompany the Kennedys as their advisor and bodyguard. He is the only man alive that fought alongside the Viet Minh and the French. Now both want his head on a platter as he goes back into the lion’s den – Vietnam.Will Granier protect the Kennedys? Will he even survive?Will America make the right decision or become entangled in a faraway war with no end in sight?Read The War Before The War to find out.

A Walk in the Park: A Vietnam Comedy


Odon Bacque - 2013
    Bacque Jr. figures his poor eyesight rules him out for the draft, not to mention the fact that he's studying law in college, so the young man doesn't worry too much about the war raging in Vietnam. But when his law school requests he doesn't return, Bacque learns just how wrong he was.Still convinced his eyesight—or rather the lack of it—disqualifies him from a combat position, he learns once again he’s mistaken. Sent through Officer Candidate School, he winds up assigned to the 5th Special Forces…the Green Berets.Once in Vietnam, Bacque prepares for the worst—only to have fate finally cut him some slack. Reassigned from an A team back to a B team, he finds himself removed from the front lines and ordered to perform a task better suited to an accounting major, a course he barely passed in college. Still, it beat trying to survive jungle warfare with a serious vision impairment…A Walk in the Park: A Vietnam Comedy charts Bacque's experiences in Vietnam along with his growing disillusionment with the war's management. Funny without being disrespectful, his story offers a surprisingly comedic look at wartime service.

Meeting Steve Canyon . . . and Flying with the CIA in Laos


Karl L. Polifka - 2013
    This account has many illustrations of the grinding stress of intense combat in Laos, and the periodic clashes with the distant headquarters that had little knowledge of an extremely complex combat environment and was more focused on control rather than results.

The Protector (Brotherhood Series Book 3)


Vivian Rose Lee - 2017
    She lived to create and enjoy her carefree bohemian lifestyle. Life was good, until her father died leaving her to continue his legacy of Thornton Industries. She was an engineer, not some corporate shark. Therefore, she didn’t know where to begin, especially managing the day-to-day operations of retaining TI's successful multi-million dollar status. Before she could regroup to handle the inherited responsibilities, she started receiving personal threats against her life. When they escalated into life-threatening attacks, she had to accept around-the-clock protection from a man whose nearness was dangerous to her self-imposed celibacy. Olen Davidson was assigned to protect Zulayka. From the beginning, he made it known he was not happy with what he called "a babysitting assignment," but he went along "taking one for the team." He was even more disappointed when he met the woman in person. She was a twenty-first century hippie, with a high IQ, a smart mouth, and an eccentric personality. The easy assignment soon turned into international espionage with Zulayka’s company as the targeted prize. Olen’s cavalier attitude in protecting Zulayka almost caused her serious injuries. Now Olen is determined to put his life on the line to protect her. What he hadn’t asked for were the feelings he was starting to have for the unconventional nerd who wasn't his type. Hadn't watching her prevented him from a reunion with the woman who held his heart?

Absolution, Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 22nd Infantry


Charles J. Boyle - 2013
    This accurate portrayal of battle is poignantly told by an author who has "been there." Absolution is a remarkable resurrection of the Vietnam battlefield, with all of the valor, pain, and sacrifice that distinguished it from other wars. It is undistorted in its accuracy and exquisite in its prose. Absolution is superb history and great reading! It will tear at your heart and make you want to cry.

Over and Out


James F. Jordan - 2013
    A first hand account of my tour of duty in Vietnam.

INCOMING!: Memories of a Combat Medic: Growing Up Poor, Getting Drafted to Vietnam, Coming Home and Coming Out.


Larry Sanders - 2019
    Then one day I found myself in a foreign country carrying an M-16 rifle and a medical bag fighting a war I knew little about. Within weeks of my arrival in Vietnam the Tet Offensive exploded all around me, changing my life, the war, and the entire world. I witnessed death on a daily basis and became known as Baby-san Bac-si, the baby-faced combat medic.

Chasing Charlie: A Force Recon Marine in Vietnam


Richard Fleming - 2018
    Marine 1st Force Reconnaissance Company during the bloodiest years of the Vietnam War. Dropped deep into enemy territory, Recon relied on stealth and surprise to complete their mission--providing intelligence on enemy positions and conducting raids, prisoner snatches, and ambushes. Fleming's absorbing memoir recounts his transformation from idealistic recruit to cynical veteran as the war claimed the lives of his friends and the missions became ever more dangerous.

Without Parachutes: How I Survived 1,000 Attack Helicopter Combat Missions in Vietnam


Jerry W. Childers - 2005
    He arrived in Vietnam in 1964 and volunteered to join the worlds first attack helicopter company. The Utility Tactical Transport Helicopter Company (UTT) had deployed to Vietnam in 1962. It came equipped with the U.S. Armys brand new UH-1 Huey, a helicopter originally designed as an aerial ambulance. The crews, not happy with a passive combat role, began experimenting with ways to strap guns on their aircraft and attack the enemy. Through a deadly process of trial and error the pilots pushed their machines to the edge. Mistakes were made, crews were lost and lessons were learned. These lessons evolved into combat tactics and became fondly known as the 12 Cardinal Rules of Attack Helicopter Combat. Upon joining the unit the author learned about the rules. He studied them and on his first day in combat, developed his own 13th rule. Over his ensuing three years in Vietnam, the rules, especially the 13th, helped him survive over one thousand combat missions. This book provides the reader with a cockpit level view of dozens of those missions and describes several additional near disaster situations encountered by the author during over 25 years flying Army Aircraft. The author is successful in striking a balance between the grim realities of combat and the often humorous aspects of life among a group of high spirited aviators who fly into the jaws of death daily without a parachute on their back. He suggests that the 13 rules, although developed during a different war and at a different time, are applicable to armed helicopter combat operations in the 21st Century. The book contains about 200 pages and is nicely illustrated with 50 photographs.

Exodus, Revisited: My Unorthodox Journey to Berlin


Deborah Feldman - 2021
    She was determined to find a better life for herself, away from the oppression and isolation of her Satmar upbringing in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. And in Exodus, Revisited she delves into what happened next--taking the reader on a journey that starts with her beginning life anew as a single mother, a religious refugee, and an independent woman in search of a place and a community where she can belong. Originally published in 2014, Deborah has now revisited and significantly expanded her story, and the result is greater insight into her quest to discover herself and the true meaning of home. Travels that start with making her way in New York expand into an exploration of America and eventually lead to trips across Europe to retrace her grandmother's life during the Holocaust, before she finds a landing place in the unlikeliest of cities. Exodus, Revisited is a deeply moving examination of the nature of memory and generational trauma, and of reconciliation with both yourself and the world.

Gone Native: An NCO's Story


Alan Cornett - 2000
    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 territory, where the smallest mistake meant sudden death, that the Vietnamese fighting men earned his utmost respect.While offering rare glimpses of an aspect of the war most of the military and media never saw, Cornett tells the full, gut-wrenching story of his Vietnam. He also gives an unsparing view of himself - telling a no-holds-barred story of an American soldier who made sacrifices far beyond the call of duty . . . a soldier who, in defiance of the U.S. government, refused to turn his back on the Vietnamese.

Making a Night Stalker


David Burnett - 2019
    His journey starts in a conventional Army unit where he doesn't feel fulfilled in his duties and obligations. This lack of responsibility drives David to pursue the dream of becoming an MH-47G Chinook helicopter crew chief in the most secretive and elite aviation unit in the world. David is met with constant hurdles and set backs trying to achieve his ultimate goal but he is more determined than ever. After graduating from the units five week selection process he is thrown into school after school and non stop training before being able to step foot on the aircraft he so desperately dreams of crewing on. After almost a year in the Special Operations unit he is trained and ready to deploy with 160th, and it is nothing short of intense. He learns quickly that his new units mission op tempo is exactly what he had hoped. He is eager to prove himself among the ranks and continues to hone his craft over the next four years. After five deployments with the unit as a crew chief he is discharged from the military. After leaving the fast paced world of the SOF community he falls into a deep depression. Alcohol becomes the new most important thing, and he finds himself in a new and reckless battlefield. He never saw this coming.

LRRP (Provisional) 2nd Bde 4th Infantry Division Vietnam 1966-67


Frank Camper - 2021
    

Our Vietnam Wars, Vol 3: as told by still more veterans who served


William F. Brown - 2019
    They tell who we were, our jobs and memories of the place, and what we did after we came home. From a Marine ambulance driver at Khe Sanh, Special Ops troops fighting a guerrilla war against the VC and NVA, Recon pilots, artillerymen on Christmas Eve, a Navy seaman below decks fighting a catastrophic fire on the USS Oriskany, a New Zealand artillery unit firing round after round to stop an NVA assault, Marine Corpsmen saving the wounded under fire, patrolling the jungle with New Zealand infantry, walking into Khe Sanh with the 1st Cav as they broke the siege, riding in an APC with the armored cav across the hills in I Corps, being shot down in Cambodia with a Huey pilot, plus cooks, clerks, truck drivers, and gunship pilots, combat medics, and Marine grunts and many more -- from the Delta to the DMZ and Thailand to the South China Sea, this book puts you in their boots. While most Vietnam War books only cover one guy, one unit, one place, and one year, Volume 1, Volume 2, and now Volume 3 span all the war years from 1962 to 1975. Some of us were drafted. Some enlisted. Some were legit war heroes, but most were just trying to survive. As everyone “in-country” knew, Vietnam mostly came down to luck, good or bad. If you were there, you understand. If you weren’t, grab a copy and start reading anywhere in the book. The stories are like Doritos. Try a few. I guarantee and you won’t be able to stop.