Military Vietnam

The Vietnam War was a long, costly armed conflict that pitted the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies, known as the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. Growing opposition to the war in the United States led to bitter divisions among Americans, both before and after President Richard Nixon ordered the withdrawal of US forces in 1973. In 1975, communist forces seized control of Saigon, ending the Vietnam War, and the country was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam the following year.

During Vietnam, the basic role of the USMC gunship squadrons was to protect the transport helicopters during medevac missions, troop insertions and extractions, resupply missions, and supporting the Marines on the ground during operations and patrols. Basically, whenever the Marines or South Vietnam friendlies got in trouble the gunships were dispatched to assist them.

What's it take to be a Vietnam helicopter pilot and what happens when Vietnam veteran combat helicopter pilots return to Vietnam? The 61st AHC goes back to Vietnam in 2009 and builds a library learning center in Bong Son near LZ English, by joining up with the Library of Vietnam Project. And some members go back every year! A "feel good" story about the Vietnam War and a unique perspective on that experience.

Return to Eden is an exploration of one man's and one country's journey from the devastation of war through recovery and healing, then to creativity. Smallwood's reflections on his military and film experiences have appeared in magazines, but this is the first recorded collection of essays.

Struggling to reassert control over their Indochinese colonies after World War II, the French established a huge air-land base in the valley of Dien Bien Phu. But when the opposing Vietnamese People's Army (VPA) began massing its forces against the base in late 1953, French commanders seized the opportunity to draw their elusive enemy into a decisive set-piece battle. Defending a series of fortified positions which were reliant upon a single airstrip for reinforcement and resupply, the French troops quickly discovered that they had underestimated their enemy.

This sequel to Welcome to Vietnam, Macho Man digs deep into the mind of a Khe Sanh vet. The author, Ernest Spencer, opens up and shares with the world his life experiences from both before and after surviving the longest battle in the Vietnam War. How does wartime service change a person? Ernest shares his struggles with finding a place to fit back into the American Dream. Some, like the author, transition back into society very well in the eyes of the world, yet the demons deep inside are grappled with daily.

The Vietnam War, known in Vietnam as the Resistance War Against America, was an undeclared conflict spanning Vietnam, Laos (with the Laotian Civil War), and Cambodia from 1955 to 1975. The war was officially fought between Communist North Vietnam and opposing South Vietnam. The former was supported by the Soviet Union, China, and other communist allies; the latter was supported by the United States, South Korea, Philippines, Australia, and other anti-communist allies. The guerrilla warfare tactics used by the Viet Cong is one of the most well-known aspects of the war.

The Vietnam War remains one of the most controversial events in American history, and it bitterly divided the nation, so it's somewhat ironic that the most famous monument commemorating the war is also on one of the most serene spots in the nation’s capital. The famous Vietnam Wall is a place of almost eerie silence where even children cease their chatter. Rising out of the ground like an ancient obelisk, it calls upon its visitors to stop talking and to look and gaze upon the magnitude of America’s great mistake, a war that began in whispers and ended in tears.

The Vietnam War remains one of American history’s most hotly debated military involvements—and more than a half-century later, a profound misunderstanding seems to persist. Author T Starr, a decorated Vietnam veteran who held a Top Secret Crypto clearance, is here to inform the public with a meticulously researched and personally lived reference book on the Vietnam War, They Never Heard the Final Shot: After 50 Years–The Truth About Vietnam.

This first audiobook of sea stories encompasses the brutal experiences of Marine Corps Boot Camp, the exotic ports of call in Asia, combat in Viet Nam, and the rigors of Marine Officer Candidate School. The author weaves the sea stories into a journey that put the listener in the moment, and allows for discovery of what it means to be a United States Marine. During the journey, the sea stories unveil a young man, like many born in the 1940s, who faced that period in their lives when the expectations of family and friends didn't match those of the individuals.

Idealistic and eager to get into combat, Sam Walker, a young pilot, arrives for his tour of duty in Vietnam. But on his first top secret mission, Walker confronts the gruesome reality of war and the horror its impact leaves on its servicemen. No one survives war - they simply escape. Some through death, others through drink or drugs.

Seize and Hold vividly demonstrates how military objectives can be seized by clever tactics and ruthless action. From the First World War to Vietnam, this collection gives exciting, atmospheric descriptions of 11 20th-century battlefield triumphs. Portraying military skills at their most daring and inventive, Seize and Hold is full of more drama and excitement than Hollywood could ever invent.

This second book of Sea Stories continues to follow the journey of a young Midwesterner, now Marine Lieutenant, through the rigors of Naval Flight School in Pensacola, Fatherhood, and Combat as a Helicopter Pilot in Vietnam. It also provides an interesting look at his fellow pilots and crewmen, as they fight their war from under a helicopter rotorhead.

"Kids like me didn't go to Vietnam", writes Jack McLean in his must-listen memoir. Raised in suburban New Jersey, he attended the Phillips Academy in Andover, MA, but decided to put college on hold. After graduation in the spring of 1966, faced with the mandatory military draft, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps for a two-year stint. "Vietnam at the time was a country, and not yet a war", he writes. It didn't remain that way for long.

In May 1962, Naval Chief Petty Officer Bryant Arbuckle flew to Saigon to establish a new armed forces radio station. Next to follow were his wife and three boys, Leslie among them. Saigon Kids is the candid, recondite slice of 14-year-old military brat Les Arbuckle's experience at the American Community School during the critical months of the Vietnam War when events would, quite literally, ignite in downtown Saigon.

On November 25, 1950, during one of the toughest battles of the Korean War, the US Eighth Army Ranger Company seized and held the strategically important Hill 205 overlooking the Chongchon River. Separated by more than a mile from the nearest friendly unit, 51 soldiers fought several hundred Chinese attackers. Their commander, Lieutenant Ralph Puckett, was wounded three times before he was evacuated. For his actions, he received the country's second-highest award for courage on the battlefield and resumed active duty later that year as a living legend.

With the knowledge born of firsthand experience, James H. Willbanks tells the story of the 60-day siege of An Loc. In 1972, late in the Vietnam War, a small group of South Vietnamese held off three North Vietnamese divisions and helped prevent a direct attack on Saigon. The battle can be considered one of the major events during the gradual American exit from Vietnam.

True Faith and Allegiance: An American Paratrooper and the 1972 Battle for An Loc is an intimate and compelling account of the most brutal infantry warfare and is also a critique of the mishandling of America's departure from Indochina. An unintended consequence of Washington's stampede to get out of Indochina was an upsurge in combat on a scale not seen before in Vietnam, peaking with the Easter Offensive of 1972.

Army First Lieutenant Jack Jacobs was serving as an advisor to the South Vietnamese when he and his men came under devastating attack. Severely wounded, Jacobs took command and withdrew the unit, returning again and again to the site of the attack to rescue more men, saving the lives of a U.S advisor and thirteen Allied soldiers. Colonel Jacobs received the nation's highest military award, the Medal of Honor.

In 1971, while US ground forces were prohibited from crossing the Laotian border, a South Vietnamese Army corps, with US air support, launched the largest airmobile operation in the history of warfare, Lam Son 719. The objective: to sever the North Vietnamese Army's main logistical artery, the Ho Chi Minh Trail, at its hub, Tchepone in Laos, an operation that, according to General Creighton Abrams, could have been the decisive battle of the war. Hastening the withdrawal of US forces and ensuring the survival of South Vietnam.