Vietnam War Biography

In this frank, engaging memoir, Captain Chamberlain chronicles the missions, personal courage and sacrifice of the Marines he was privileged to command; painfully recalls the unspeakable order he and his Marines were forced to obey; and the cover-up which followed. Nearly four decades later, Captain Chamberlain makes right what was wrong; brings closure to the family of a fallen and abandoned warrior; and attempts to put to rest the guilt which plagued his military career and life.

My Year in Vietnam takes Phillip I. Elkins, a.k.a. Señor Felipe, from getting on the plane to Vietnam and the shock of arrival in Vietnam and seeing the cargo hold of the plane being loaded with GIs in caskets. From there he is assigned to his unit, at first in Saigon, where he meets some of the locals and gets involved with them. Then he’s sent up into the Central Highlands with the 1st Cavalry Division as a preventive medicine specialist under a Sergeant Sidell, who hates draftees, which of course, is what Elkins is.

John Nutting is nineteen years old in 1966. Raised in small-town Idaho, to a family that could trace its military roots back to the Revolutionary War, Nutting knows he’s going to fight the war as a Marine. On the day of his high school graduation, he swears into the US Marine Corps and boards the plane to boot camp.All too soon he’s in the jungle, a greenhorn member of "F" Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Division.

On October 17, 1965, Navy LTJG Porter Halyburton was shot down over North Vietnam and listed as killed in action. One-and-a-half years later, he was found to be alive and a prisoner of war. Halyburton was held captive for more than seven years. Reflections on Captivity is a collection of fifty short stories about this naval officer's experiences as a POW in North Vietnam.

Phantom in the Sky is the story of a Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) in the back seat of the supersonic Phantom jet during the Vietnam War - a unique, tactical perspective of the “guy in back”, or GIB, absent from other published aviation accounts. During the time of Terry L. Thorsen’s service from 1966 to 1970, the RIO played an integral part in enemy aircraft interception and ordnance delivery. In Navy and Marine F-4 Phantom jets, the RIO was a second pair of eyes for the pilot, in charge of communications and navigation, and great to have during emergencies.

In 1966, a Marine sergeant screams, “Get the F*#k off my quarterdeck!” at a young man and changes his life forever. Before those words, Randy was a lost Midwestern boy who wandered through high school and college with no clear direction in his life. But he had an out-of-reach fantasy to become a Navy pilot. Through a chance encounter with a naval aviator recruiter, he finds the path to fulfill his dream. But it doesn’t happen overnight. The boy from the Detroit suburbs must first make his way through Primary, Basic, Aircraft Carrier Landing, and Advanced Multi-Engine Training.

My memoir traces the events of my early life from 1962 to 1974 when my family found itself in the epicenter of the Vietnam War. When I was eleven years old my father, then Commander James Stockdale, was shot down and declared "missing in action" in September 1965. The emotional impact of that news devastated me, my mother Sybil Stockdale, and my three brothers, but we struggled to carry on somewhat normal lives.

In the early morning hours of January 31, 1968, New Year's fireworks gave way to gunfire and bombs. Eleven-year-old Minh watched in horror as her father and two siblings were gunned down by the Vietcong in their backyard. Though she escaped death that night, abuse, prison, and torture would follow. A dramatic escape by boat on the South China Sea finally takes Minh out of communist Vietnam, but the tragedy of her childhood would continue to haunt her. Minh’s powerful story of escape, as well as dangerous and unhealthy relationships, is told with raw sincerity.

My War and Welcome to It is the story of Tom Copeland, a young man who grew up in the carefree '60s, and was drafted into the US Army. He went off to Vietnam to join the 2nd Battalion, (MECH) 2nd Infantry Regiment, in the famed 1st Infantry Division. You ride along with Tom to Dian, Phu Loi, and Lai Khe in Vietnam and feel the stress of battles at Prek Klok II, the Ong Dong Jungle, Ong Thanh, and Xom Bung. He then returns stateside as he fights the lingering stresses of what he has experienced while trying to build a career and raise a family.

In a series of riveting interviews, America's senior statesman discusses the challenges of directing foreign policy during times of great global tension. As National Security Advisor to Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger transformed America's approach to diplomacy with China, the USSR, Vietnam, and...

A young US Marine officer recounts his experiences of the Vietnam War over a 19-month period. He graphically describes what it was like to perform three distinct combat missions: long-range ground reconnaissance in the Annamite Mountains of I Corps, infantry operations in the rice paddies and mountains of Quang Nam Province, and special police operations for the CIA in Tay Ninh province. Using official Marine Corps unit histories, CIA documents, and his weekly letters home, the author relies almost exclusively on primary sources in providing an accurate and honest account.

Coupled with dialogue from the We Were Soldiers, personal interviews and Biblical truth, The Battle will walk you through the techniques, tactics, and procedures of any successful campaign - including winning the battle as a father, husband, and man of God.

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.

“A delightful and entertaining book about one of America’s greatest humorists.”—Seth Meyers This “absorbing, illuminating” (Jon Meacham) biography of the legendary political humorist reveals the life behind his must-read Washington Post columns, featuring never-before-published...

This memoir tells the story of a Marine rifle platoon commander’s time in the mountainous jungle of the northernmost province of the then Republic of Vietnam. While tasked with fighting the enemy, G.M. Davis made some great friends but saw too much death. The author tracks his tour of duty in the jungle, leading Marines not against the Viet Cong but against the North Vietnamese Army, a well-trained and well-supplied professional army dedicated to unifying the two Vietnams.

It was the tumultuous year 1968, and Robert Tonsetic was Rifle Company commander of the 4th Battalion, 12th Infantry in Vietnam. He took over a group of grunts demoralized by defeat but determined to get even. Through the legendary Tet and May Offensives, he led, trained, and risked his life with these brave men, and this is the thrilling, brutal, and honest story of his tour of duty.

A dramatic coming-of-age story and spiritual memoir that traces through the horrors of combat to discovering a spiritual approach that maps one soldier’s journey from the horrors of combat to his discovery of a spiritual approach that heals violence from the inside out.

Days before he was drafted in 1962, Dennis Foley volunteered to join the army in the hopes of someday getting into West Point. He was only eighteen years old. At basic training in Fort Dix, New Jersey, a presentation by two impressive, self-confident special forces sergeants made an indelible impression on him. His career would come full circle. In 1972, wearing a green beret, Foley would be given command of his own A-Team.

When author Linda Farell learned that her neighbor, Ron Latham, had been given only a few weeks to live, she asked to interview him about his service in the Vietnam War. At first hesitant to share, Latham eventually consented to twenty-one interviews, sharing incredibly vivid, honest, and poignant memories about his time as a Green Beret. Latham died on the day their twenty-second interview was scheduled. Farell transcribed and edited the stories, leaving the voice, sequence, and content of the stories intact.