Synopses & Reviews
and#147;In my year in Vietnam, I walked the booby-trapped rice paddies of the Delta, searching for the elusive Viet Cong, and later macheted my way through the triple-canopy jungle, fighting the North Vietnamese Regulars. . . . I sweated, thirsted, hunted, killed. Somewhere in all my experiences, I overlapped the situations of nearly every infantryman and many others who served.and#8221;
Michael Lee Lanningand#8217;s journal of his first tour of duty in Vietnam provides an unvarnished daily account of life in the fieldand#151;the blood, fear, camaraderie, and tedium of combat and maneuver. Fleshed out with narrative and detail years later, the pages of this memorable book, first published in 1987, show an eager young recruit growing before the readerand#8217;s eyes into a proud but bloodied combat veteran.
Subsequent volumes in his Vietnam Trilogy will detail Lanningand#8217;s tour as a company commander and his post-war investigation into the mind of the enemy. Through his eyes, readers see the reality of a war that did not always receive glory but was, in his words, and#147;the only war we had.and#8221;
Synopsis
Originally published: New York: Ballantine Books, 1987.
About the Author
MICHAEL LEE LANNING, who retired from a career in the U.S. Army in 1988, was awarded the bronze star for valor with two oak-leaf clusters and numerous other decorations for his service in Vietnam. Author of over a dozen books on military history, he lives in Phoenix, Arizona