The author was one of many reluctant soldiers who served in the Vietnam War. Drafted out of graduate school and trained in the infantry, he spent a year with the 101st Airborne. This work is a journal of the experience, a day to day description of what it was like in a "grunt unit" fighting in the Central Highlands, dealing with the heat, the bugs, the rain, the endless patrolling in the villages and mountains, the ever present boredom and occasional violence. It's not all exciting action but it's always real.
Voices from the Rear: Vietnam 1969-1970 This is one soldier's memoir. It is a story packed with anecdotes, incidents, and memorable characters that would be familiar and recognizable to many whom served in the Vietnam War. It is also a story about Vietnam, draftees, and my two years in the U.S. Army. In a larger context, the war tore at the ideological foundations of the silent majority. The U.S. counterculture became more adamant in its belief that the war was a terrible wrong. The Tet offensive in 1968 clearly showed that the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong could muster a full-scale attack at any time and any place within Vietnam. At a tremendous cost of lives, the Americans and their South Vietnamese allies eventually drove the Communists from their newly captured areas. However, the Tet offensive successfully dampened U.S. hopes for a swift end to the war. In addition, this battle made young American men and college graduates more reluctant to serve in the military. On a more personal level, this memoir speaks to the inequalities of the draft system and my experience with a local draft board. I describe the difficulties posed by the draft system, and the inconsistencies of the draft laws, which left to the discretion of the local draft boards the policy of deciding who served and who didn't. Moreover, as a doctoral student in history with an M.A. degree in hand and college teaching experience, I was an anomaly in basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and advanced individual training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. I had worked in an adult world and had acquired a sense of self-discipline, and was suddenly thrust into the freedomless existence of an army that included seventeen-and-eighteen year olds. I was lost, but worse than that I was caught in a system, that was distinctly American but as alien as the country that I was supposed to unchain from the shackles of communism. On another level, this is a social history of the U.S. Army during two tumultuous years 1969 and 1970. Like most soldiers who were sent to Vietnam, I had anxieties about going. When I finally arrived, I had trepidations about a unit assignment. I introduce characters with whom I lived with for over a year and describe their backgrounds, their personalities, and many of our shared experiences. For a year, these men were my family. I relished their friendship. Most of them would not have been in Vietnam were it not for the draft. Although being drafted required two years of service, many soldiers were three-year draftees. They had signed up for a military occupational skill (MOS) of their choice to avoid the infantry. I was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division as rear echelon personnel specialist (clerk) in the Division's Administration Company. Like many rear echelon personnel, I experienced the fears and the apprehension of guard duty, and the horror of rocket attacks, as well as the many amusing times. The intrusive hand of the Army consistently reminded us that we were not free individuals. It was not only the infantry that fought the war and contended with Army. Indeed, the rear echelon, which comprised the majority of troops that served in Vietnam, expressed similar animosities towards the war and the Army. The rear troops often maneuvered ingenuously to cope with the institution that held them there. The book shows how these soldiers created a culture and shared comradeship, which helped them survive the war and endure the Army. At times the soldiers fought the Army as much as they did the enemy. As the year 1969 closed, my unit moved from Bien Hoa near Saigon to Phu Bai near Hue, to be closer to Division headquarters. By this time, our attitudes towards the war and the Army had become further strained. The sense of purpose or mission, if there ever was any, became focused on surviving and not being the last one sacrificed in an unjust war. The activity on the ho
Featuring a new introduction by the author about his return to Vietnam, his reflections on the war, and his humanitarian work in Cambodia. “The enemy had a single purpose: kill me and my teammates.” Larry Chambers was still new to Vietnam in early 1969 when the LRRPs of the 101st Airborne Division became L Company, 75th (Rangers). But his unit’s mission stayed the same: act as the eyes and ears of the 101st deep in the dreaded A Shau Valley—where the NVA ruled. Relentless thick fog frequently made fighter bombers useless in the A Shau, and the enemy had furnished the nearby mountaintops with antiaircraft machine guns to protect the massive trail network that snaked through it. So, outgunned, outmanned, and unsupported, the teams of L Company executed hundreds of courageous missions. Now, in this powerful personal record, Larry Chambers recaptures the experience of the war’s most brutal on-the-job training, where the slightest noise or smallest error could bring sudden—and certain—death. . . .
The 101st Airborne Division ("Screaming Eagles") is a light infantry division of the United States Army specializing in air assault operations. ... During the Vietnam War, the 101st Airborne Division fought in several major campaigns and battles, including the Battle of Hamburger Hill in May 1969. 1970: the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne have been in combat against the elusive Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army for nearly five years. In this memoir, author John G. Roberts tells the story of the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, the "Widow Makers" of the 101st Divisions' 1st Brigade. Written in the often crude language of the combat infantryman, Roberts describes what it was like to confront the enemy during close combat in the triple-canopied jungles of I Corps, west of the Song Bo River. As part of Operation Texas Star, the 502nd Infantry (the "O-Deuce") lost 30 men killed and over 200 wounded in a month-long battle in April and May 1970.
The History of the 101st Airborne Division is the epic story of the Division from its activation in August 1942 through the completion of Operation Desert Storm in April 1991. The Division's progression through the sky took decades of hard work and tens of thousands of dedicated soldiers. In World War II, the 101st became the first American troops to set foot in occupied France, when, on 6 June 1944, its paratroopers dropped behind enemy lines, clearing the way for the 4th Infantry Division landing on Utah Beach. The Division would become famous for its work in Holland during Operation Market Garden, and for its successful defense of Bastogne, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge. In Vietnam, the "Screaming Eagles" engaged in battle from 1965 to 1972, when they began their evolution to Air Mobile by deploying by helicopter. In the Gulf War, the Division fired the first shots of Operation Desert Storm by destroying Iraqi radar sites, and during ground war of the operation, they made the longest and largest air assault in history. In every engagement and during the training periods in between, the 101st Airborne Division has honored the words of its first commander, General William C. Lee, that it has a "rendezvous with destiny." This book is a fitting record of that history, and of the men who are proud to be called "Screaming Eagles."
The 101st Airborne Division ("Screaming Eagles") is a light infantry division of the United States Army specializing in air assault operations. ... During the Vietnam War, the 101st Airborne Division fought in several major campaigns and battles, including the Battle of Hamburger Hill in May 1969. 1970: the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne have been in combat against the elusive Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army for nearly five years. In this memoir, author John G. Roberts tells the story of the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, the "Widow Makers" of the 101st Divisions' 1st Brigade. Written in the often crude language of the combat infantryman, Roberts describes what it was like to confront the enemy during close combat in the triple-canopied jungles of I Corps, west of the Song Bo River. As part of Operation Texas Star, the 502nd Infantry (the "O-Deuce") lost 30 men killed and over 200 wounded in a month-long battle in April and May 1970.
The Men of Alpha Company details the service, sacrifices and heroism of the paratroopers of the celebrated 173rd Airborne Brigade during a year of combat in South Vietnam, as seen by a man who led them as a rifle platoon leader and company executive officer.
