Joseph L. Galloway (1941–2021)

This is a documentary but it is compiled from the personal recollections of many survivors. Moore is the principal author but many generals, colonels, lieutenant colonels, majors, captains, lieutenants, master sergeants, sergeants first class, sergeants, specialists, and privates contribute in their own words. It is an account of the first large-scale battle by an airmobile battalion. Although not stated, it is clear that intelligence about the whereabouts of the enemy was lacking. Instead of search and destroy, it was be found and survive. There was much heroism but that was because the fighting was so intense it was a case of being heroic or dying.… (más)

Tough going in parts - a bit like Vietnam itself. When I was in grammar school, my best friend for my first two years was the son of a Lt-Col in USAF who was based in England. Years later, when I was visiting Oklahoma, I met him again. I knew he would have been drafted so asked him what he did in the Vietnam War. His elder brother had been a helicopter gunship pilot. He said he had spent his years as an officer in Georgia, conducting funeral details and honor guards at a military airfield for bodies shipped back from Vietnam. As he observed, "There's nothing like doing that in front of grieving relatives for two years to give you a whole new perspective on war." Reading this book gave me a better perspective on what he and his brother were doing in 1966.… (más)