Days of Valor: An Inside Account of the Bloodiet Six Months of the Vietnam WarIn this book the reader enters a nonstop maelstrom of combat action, leaving he or she nearly breathless by the end. The human courage and carnage described in these pages resonates through the centuries, from Borodino to the Bulge, but the focus here is on the Vietnam War, and a unique unit formed to take part at its height.The 199th Light Infantry Brigade was created from three U.S. infantry battalions of long lineage, as a fast reaction force for the U.S. to place in Indochina. As the book begins, in December 1967, the brigade has been in Vietnam for a year, and many of its battered 12-month men are returning home. This is timely, as the Communists seem to be in a lull, and the brigade commander, in order to whet his new soldiers to combat, requests a transfer to a more active sector, just above Saigon. Through January the battalions scour the sector, finding increasing enemy strength, NVA personel now mixed within Viet Cong units. But the enemy is lying low, and a truce has even been declared for the Vietnamese New Year, the holiday called Tet. On January 30, 1968, the storm breaks loose, as Saigon and nearly every provincial capital in the country is overrun by VC and NVA, bursting in unexpected strength from their base camps. In these battles we learn the most intimate details of combat, as the Communists fight with rockets, mortars, Chinese claymores, mines, machine guns and AK-47s. The battles evolve into an enemy favoring the cloak of night, the jungle--both urban and natural--and subterranean fortifications, against U.S. forces favoring direct confrontational battle supported by air and artillery. When the lines are only 25 yards apart, however, there is little way to distinguish between the firepower or courage of the assailants and the defenders, or even who is who at any given moment, as both sides have the other in direct sight. Many of the vividly described figures in this book do not make it to the end. |
Contents
Prologue | 1 |
What Came Before | 5 |
Across the Song Dong Nai | 17 |
Copyright | |
18 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Days of Valor: An Inside Account of the Bloodiest Six Months of the Vietnam War Robert L. Tonsetic No preview available - 2022 |
Days of Valor: An Inside Account of the Bloodiest Six Months of the Vietnam War Robert L. Tonsetic No preview available - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
199th Infantry Brigade 199th Light Infantry 3rd Platoon 4th Platoon ACAV airmobile assault Alpha Company ambush artillery ARVN attack Award battalion battle began Bien Hoa Bill Schroeder Bravo Bravo Company brigade's Bronze Star Medal Captain Tonsetic Cholon combat Company commander Company's Cottonbalers Dabney Davison December Delta Company Dong Nai River dust-off Echo Company enemy base camp enemy bunkers enemy fire enemy positions enemy soldiers evacuate explosions FIELD FORCE VIETNAM fighting firebase Forbes forward FSB Nashua FSB Stephanie grenade ground gunner Headquarters helicopter II Field Force Infantry Brigade SEP jungle killed kilometers Long Binh LRP team LTC Schroeder machine gun Mastoris medevac meters mission Morris moved Nai village Nashua night operations ordered patrol perimeter platoon leader platoon sergeant racetrack radio Regiment rice paddies rocket Saigon Smaldone Smaldone's Specialist squad Tet Offensive troops units Vietnamese Warrior battalion weapons wounded