Following a harrowing sea voyage that nearly ended their tour before it began, they finally arrived in Vietnam. Though a "cherry" unit with no combat experience, within three short months that all changed. Eighty-two of those first ninety nights were spent in mud filled foxholes or ambush positions, covered with leeches, shivering through the limitless, and cold monsoon rains and incessant enemy mortar fire. Days of endless patrols, in in an area laced with thousands of mines and booby traps as well as the ever-present but often unseen enemy. As difficult as those first three months were, McCarthy says it was a picnic compared to what would follow.
Recounting his first fourteen months in Vietnam in gripping detail, in this book McCarthy draws on his own memory as well as official records to provide an unflinching firsthand account of what it was like to serve-and lead-as a Marine during the Vietnam War.
Following a harrowing sea voyage that nearly ended their tour before it began, they finally arrived in Vietnam. Though a "cherry" unit with no combat experience, within three short months that all changed. Eighty-two of those first ninety nights were spent in mud filled foxholes or ambush positions, covered with leeches, shivering through the limitless, and cold monsoon rains and incessant enemy mortar fire. Days of endless patrols, in in an area laced with thousands of mines and booby traps as well as the ever-present but often unseen enemy. As difficult as those first three months were, McCarthy says it was a picnic compared to what would follow.
Recounting his first fourteen months in Vietnam in gripping detail, in this book McCarthy draws on his own memory as well as official records to provide an unflinching firsthand account of what it was like to serve-and lead-as a Marine during the Vietnam War.
Hardcover
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