Aggies Revenge...and Airplane Driver. I don't recall a missle battery either. I guess it could have been around without me knowing it, although I was involved with the daily briefings by Gen. Norton each day at base camp and in the field.And I don't recall any briefings involving or mentioning a missle battery. Of course, the memory does dim after all this time. I was a Combat Weather Officer (Air Force attached to the Cav....66-67.)

Aggies Revenge...You might do a Google on Hawk Missile Battery Vietnam. There are a number of links referencing the battery. Evidently they were deployed in Saigon and Da Nang (at least), although I don't believe any were ever fired in combat.

From what my Dad said they were pretty much made instant infantry. From my understanding where he was at the battery wasn't even set up (could be wrong about it)

He never talked much about it until he was really sick so I could never really pick his brain about it.

The VC and NVA had high performance aircraft, but I don't think they bombed US positions too often, nor very effectively. The HAWK batteries I remember most were in Germany.

(Not intended to steal anything from previous discussions.)

If you want to read soething about strategy, or lack thereof, by far the best I've read about VN is Strategy for Defeat by Admiral U S G Sharp.

Acceptable Loss..this book got me started on Vietnam and interested in infantry/helicopters.

Blood on the Risers
John Leppelman - I think he is an Aggie

Chickenhawk.

and for some comic relief after all that heavy reading, may I recomend:

"My Secret War" by Richard S Drury. The personal account of an Air Force pilot flying A-1 Skyraiders out of Nakhon Phenom, RTAFB, Thailand.

"They Marched into Sunlight" - David Maraniss

also

"...And a Hard Rain Fell" - John Ketwig

+ whatever for Chickenhawk. Great read. I read it back in '89 when I was a sophomore in high school.

Another good one is Headhunters by Matthew Brennan. It's about the 1/9 Cav, my dad's outfit.


Now the thing that I call livin' is just bein' satisfied with knowin' I got no one left to blame

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes was very good. It's fiction, but still a great read and 30 years in the making. It's about a company of Marines on the Laos border and the fight for a hill code named Matterhorn.

I enjoyed it since my uncle was a platoon leader and KIA in 1969. Gave me a sense of what it must have been like for him.

I would be interested in hearing what the officers think of Summer's "On Strategy"

Stalking the Vietcong by Stuart A. Herrington

Good look at the mindsets of American and North Vietnamese soldiers written by a US Intelligence Adviser who worked extensively with captured enemy forces.

EDIT: Originally published as "Silence Was A Weapon"

[This message has been edited by GregZeppelin (edited 5/18/2010 8:32p).]

"The Ravens" by Christopher Robbins

Why isn't anybody talking about the all of the books from the LRRPS?

LRRPS = ?

LRRPS= Long Range Recon Patrols. These and the books on the Phoenix operations.

Indeed, I'd also like to read more about the ASA in VietNam. Anyone have suggestions?

The things they carried

Just finished Matterhorn. Very intense. I recommend this one.

I concur with Matterhorn. Very good. I don't often read fiction , but this one I recommend.

Strategy for Defeat by U.S. Grant Sharp.

Where the Domino Fell: America. & Vietnam, 1945-1990 by James Olsen and Randy Roberts is pretty good. It was published right after I had Dr. Olsen's Vietnam History class when I attended SHSU before I joined the Army. We were proofreading it before it was published

AGGIE12B
JC '88
If you value the Freedom and Liberties you have in your life, be sure to Thank a Veteran everyday!

Shadow Warriors. It is the story of CSM Miller, who served SEVEN YEARS CONSECUTIVE TOURS IN VIETNAM, serving with Special Forces. He was a Medal of Honor recipient, and the book will make you want to read it front to back, without ever setting it down.

Strategy for Defeat by US Grant Sharp (former CINCPAC)

there was a book called either "The Killing Fields" or "The Killing Zone", i cant remember which, about an Army infantry LT. its basically his daily diary from the day he landed in vietnam until the day he is wounded and evaced out. very interesting book.

fiction book i recommend is devil's guard. it is pre nam focusing on the former nazi ss involvement in the indo-china wars.
if you have a kindle you can ge it for $20. otherwise look to spend $100+ for a paperback

Street without joy still applies to what we are doing today but it is one of the best indochina books out there.

+1 for "The Things They Carried"

Obituary of Thomas Hargrove '66

Hargrove just recently passed away. Interesting fellow, even had a movie based on some of his life. Read the obit.

But for purposes of this discussion

quote:

---

Hargrove wrote country-western songs; he also wrote two books, a memoir of his Vietnam experience, A Dragon Lives Forever: War and Rice in Vietnam's Mekong Delta 1969-1991 and Beyond and a memoir of his 11 months in captivity (in Columbia) Long March to Freedom.

---

From his Vietnam experience

quote:

---

In 1969, he was made agricultural adviser for the Military Assistance Command in Chuong Thien, one of Vietnam's deadliest provinces. Traveling mostly by sampan on canals and rivers, Hargrove spread the newly developed IR8 high-yield rice variety that doubled and tripled crops.

After the war, he visited Vietnam on another agricultural mission and met Viet Cong veterans who told him they had him in their sights but let him live because he was doing so much good.

---

another one i forgot "how we won the war" by giap.

Without having reviewed the post between yours and now and in understanding that many excellent references have thereby been passed, "The Best and the Brightest" by Richard Halliburten or close was/is a siminel reading experience in my life. Unfortunately that life is altering quickly and decisions must solidify or not.

Without having reviewed the post between yours and now and in understanding that many excellent references have thereby been passed, "The Best and the Brightest" by Richard Halliburten or close was/is a siminel reading experience in my life. Unfortunately that life is altering quickly and decisions must solidify or not.

SOG was a great read of some of our black-ops stuff.

I also liked 5 Years to Freedom by James "Nick" Rowe. He was an SF'er taken POW by the VC very early and was held in southern prison camps until his escape.

I read a bunch about the LRRP's and didn't find one that I didn't like.

I don't recall the title, but Gen Robinson Risner's book on his time in the Hanoi Hilton was excellent as well - same as the one written by Everett Alvarez Jr (first northern POW).

"The best social program is a job."
-Ronald Reagan

http://www.marchforbabies.com/