I just bought the book We Were Soldiers Once... and Young.

[Sierra]

I cant wait to read it. Has anyone else read it or are you currently reading it? What are your reviews on it?

[NcDeuce]

Read it a year and a half ago. Great book, full of great stories & men.

[James]

Excellent book. Enjoy.

[Tane Angle]

Great book. Very interesting read.

[Ichhabe]

As others already stated: It is great.

And the book describes the battle(s) much better and you get a better overview on what happened in the valley if Ia Drang on the US side than what the movie was able to do.

Enjoy it.

[front]

Do you have the paperback version with the image of Lieutenant Rick Rescorla:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1710000/images/_1711325_wtc_book_300.jpg

on the cover?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1711325.stm


Here is another link:

http://www.sid-ss.net/911/rickr.htm

Not from that URL but a part of it:

http://www.sid-ss.net/911/rickr.jpg

"On the day of the attack, he should have been on holiday, heading for his step-daughter's wedding in Tuscany.

But his deputy wanted to visit the Lebanon. Selflessly, Rescorla delayed his own vacation - and died for it."

Rescorla died on 911 in New York.


It is a very good book.

cheers

front

[Roger Rabbit]

I thought the book was excellent as well. Looks at the wider picture as well as the personnel experiences.

[Red]

excellent book

[earl]

On the topic of Vietnam books, I really have to recommend Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered From All Sides by Christian G Appy. It just came out in 2003, and offers about a 100 narratives by all sorts of people who were involved:

William Westmoreland
Vo Nguyen Giap
Sergei Khrushchev
Oliver Stone: "That was the unit the Barnes character was in. He was a hell of a sergeant. He could kill and he knew how to get them. I remember one time we snuck up on em as they were eating breakfast. Its rare to sneak up on the VC, but he smelled the fish heads. We got them at dawn. The guy just loved killing. He really hated them, hated their ****ing guts. He had scars on his face and he lived to kill. He was like a real Ahab."

Some of the interesting stories include an OSS soldier who parachuted into Vietnam in July 1945 to organize and assist Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh against the Japanese.

Another is from a Vietnamese sniper: "I felt very nervous because I was just a small girl and the Americans were so big. When I was a young guerilla fighter I was smaller than I am today. We knew we couldn't shoot them from a distance. We had to wait for them to come very close. As soon as I started to fire, I killed an American. After he fell, some ofhis friends came rushing to his aid. They held his body and cried. They cried a lot. This made them sitting ducks. Very easy to shoot. From then on we knew that if we just shot one American soldier others would rush to him and then we could shoot more."

Or 1965's Playmate of the year :) "All my relatives got together and you would think I had disgraced the whole family. But when I came back from Vietnam, and especially after I was a guest of honor of the 173rd ABN at the White House, then, my gosh, it was a whole different story. Then they decided I had done something for God and my country"

Overall I think it's balanced because it offers the chance for around 100 people from all different perspectives to say their bit. There's definitely some interesting stories from US infantry, POWs, and pilots etc. but this is something we are all pretty familiar with. I found the other perspectives interesting because its something that isn't as common as the stories of US soldiers.[/i]

[NcDeuce]

Do you have the paperback version with the image of Lieutenant Rick Rescorla:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1710000/images/_1711325_wtc_book_300.jpg

on the cover?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1711325.stm


Here is another link:

http://www.sid-ss.net/911/rickr.htm

Not from that URL but a part of it:

http://www.sid-ss.net/911/rickr.jpg

"On the day of the attack, he should have been on holiday, heading for his step-daughter's wedding in Tuscany.

But his deputy wanted to visit the Lebanon. Selflessly, Rescorla delayed his own vacation - and died for it."

Rescorla died on 911 in New York.


It is a very good book.

cheers

front

Helluva soldier, fine American...wish we had more citizens like Rescorla.