As to the authenticity of the military and battle elements of the story, as well as to the Battle of Sng B specifically, five months after graduating from West Point in June 1967, Rich Adams was one of the first in the Class of 1967 to serve in the Vietnam War and fought in the Battle of Sng B on February 18, 1968, during the North Vietnamese Tet Offensive. Prior to deployment to Vietnam to serve with the 101st Airborne Division as a forward observer and fire direction officer for an artillery battery, he shared a barracks room with an African-American lieutenant for Airborne training. The man responded to him at the end of the first week of airborne school as Redman does in Sng B when queried by Foxworth if he wanted to go with the guys into Columbus, Georgia, for a few beers and to blow off some steam ... it wasn't going to happen.
Relevant to the story, Rich Adams served as a Casualty Assistance Officer to a family suffering the loss of a husband and father killed in Vietnam, and prior to resigning from the military in 1974, he administered the race relations program and unit-wide race relations seminars for a major U.S. command in Germany, the 24th Engineer Group, during a time of intense racial unrest within the military.As to the authenticity of the military and battle elements of the story, as well as to the Battle of Sng B specifically, five months after graduating from West Point in June 1967, Rich Adams was one of the first in the Class of 1967 to serve in the Vietnam War and fought in the Battle of Sng B on February 18, 1968, during the North Vietnamese Tet Offensive. Prior to deployment to Vietnam to serve with the 101st Airborne Division as a forward observer and fire direction officer for an artillery battery, he shared a barracks room with an African-American lieutenant for Airborne training. The man responded to him at the end of the first week of airborne school as Redman does in Sng B when queried by Foxworth if he wanted to go with the guys into Columbus, Georgia, for a few beers and to blow off some steam ... it wasn't going to happen.
Relevant to the story, Rich Adams served as a Casualty Assistance Officer to a family suffering the loss of a husband and father killed in Vietnam, and prior to resigning from the military in 1974, he administered the race relations program and unit-wide race relations seminars for a major U.S. command in Germany, the 24th Engineer Group, during a time of intense racial unrest within the military.