Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 I was raised by a Navy brat, and had been around the military long enough to know that some of the soldiers were not the sharpest knives in the drawer. I was not officially in the military yet, but I had raised my right hand and taken the oath of allegiance. #2 At Fort Polk, the army processed us quickly. We were given haircuts, uniforms, and immunizations. The whole process took about thirty minutes. #3 The Army trained us to climb onto the back of trucks and move to our training company. We were then instructed to line up and do pushups, with our duffel bags in front of us. Some trainees didn’t understand and moved too slow for the drill sergeant. #4 The exercise and tirade went on for an hour. We were all smoked by the end of the ordeal. We were told to pick up the contents of our duffel bags, which had been dumped on the ground for contraband inspection. Three other drill sergeants came into the barracks.

In the spring of 1972, North Vietnam launched a massive military offensive designed to deliver the coup de grace to South Vietnam and its rapidly disengaging American ally. But an overconfident Hanoi misjudged its opponents who, led by American military advisers and backed by American airpower, were able to hold off the North's onslaught in what became the biggest battle of a very long war. Dale Andrade rescues this epic engagement from its previous neglect to tell a riveting tale of heroism against great odds. Originally published in cloth in 1995 as Trial by Fire and drawing upon recent Vietnamese-language sources, this new paperback edition will finally allow a true classic on the war to reach the wide readership it deserves.

Includes over 30 maps and illustrations For several years, the eastern part of the Laotian panhandle was used by North Vietnam as a corridor for the infiltration of personnel and materiels required to sustain its war efforts in South Vietnam and Cambodia. In addition to the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the eastern panhandle contained many logistic installations and base areas. After the 18 March 1970 change of government in Cambodia which closed the port of Sihanoukville to the enemy, this trail-base area complex in lower Laos became even more important to North Vietnam in its prosecution of the war in the South. The real hub of this entire complex, where transportation and storage activities were coordinated, was Base Area 604 located west of the Demilitarized Zone and surrounding the district town of Tchepone. To disrupt the flow of enemy personnel and supplies into South Vietnam, a ground attack was launched across the Laotian border against this enemy hub of activity on 8 February 1971. Operation LAM SON 719 was conducted by I Corps with substantial U.S. support in firepower and heli-lift but without the participation of U.S. advisers with those ARVN units fighting in Laos. As a test of Vietnamization, this operation was to demonstrate also the progress achieved in combat effectiveness by the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces. Further, LAM SON 719 achieved the objective of forestalling a Communist offensive in the spring of 1971.

Drafted in late May 1968, Adams, barely 20 years old, was quickly transformed into an infantry rifleman on the front lines of the Vietnam War, where he survived a year of combat with the famed "Manchu" Regiment, 25th Infantry "Tropic Lightning" Division. Sent in as replacements for those Bravo Co. soldiers who were killed in the Thanksgiving Day Battle of 1968, Adams and his fellow soldiers were charged with building "Mole City," a combat patrol base camp near the Cambodian Border, to purposely bait the NVA and disrupt their supply lines through the region. He had been "in country" for less than a month when the NVA attacked Mole City during a Christmas truce, just before midnight on December 22, 1968. The Manchus fought valiantly through the night as their ammo supplies dwindled, and as a last resort, artillery was called in on Mole City. In 2003, Adams began reaching out to the families of fallen comrades and reconnecting with his fellow Manchus - many of whom suffer some form of PTSD as a result of the horrors they experienced in Vietnam. As these surviving warriors age, they are now burying their Manchu Brothers. Fifty years later, through a photographic history featuring 250+ color pictures, Adams recounts his journey from a rural Midwestern town to the jungles of Vietnam, sharing what it's like to fight - and not die - for your country.

Nobody completely escapes the effects of Viet Nam?ǪThere was more than one enemy in Viet Nam. There was Charlie, who wanted to punch your helicopter full of holes with his AK-47 and bring you and the aircraft crashing down to the ground, down to your death. There was your own malfunctioning equipment, like the faulty flare that went off inside your helicopter, knocking you out and almost sending your whole aircraft and its crew to a fiery death.EMPTY TUBES AND BACK SEAT MEMORIES is the fascinating and true tale of Russ Warriners year and a half tour in Viet Nam serving as Crew Chief and Door Gunner on an M3 Rocket System equiped Huey in the U.S. Army Aerial Rocket Artillery (ARA).It is a fascinating chronicle of the day by day activity of a young soldier who comes from a conventional life in a small town in Massachusetts, but who wants to serve his country and ends up doing so and being awarded a Purple Heart, more than a dozen Air Medals, and three Army Commendation medals for his heroism in battle.It is a story of unconventional life in a controversial war.As Russ Warriner says: The permanent physical injuries from this war will always be apparent, but Russ shows us in his vivid narrative way the mental injuries can go unnoticed for years. These injuries are better know as PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

Saudi Arabia has fallen... ...as America fights to hold on. Saddam declares this the "Mother of all Wars." Iraq controls twenty-five percent of the world's daily oil output. Prices soar as the Soviet Union moves to fill the void. The world's first oil war has begun and wreaked havoc on global trade. Fighting around Medina and the Islamic Holy sites turns medieval. Memories of World War I trench warfare return. Will the 101st Airborne be able to stop the Republican Guard from throwing America and the remnants of the Saudi Army into the Red Sea? High above the skies of the desert, Iraqi MiG-29s, flown by Soviet advisors, battle against F-15s and F-14s for supremacy of the skies. Egypt deploys its military to join forces with Great Britain and the US to hold the line in Oman. King Abdullah of Jordan rallies to the Haus of Saud, increasing Arab legitimacy to remove Saddam. Desert Shield kicks off in earnest. America deploys the largest contingent of forces abroad since the Vietnam War. The world holds its breath as more than one million soldiers prepare to clash. You'll love this second book in the Crisis in the Desert series as we look at a war that could have been. Grab your copy now.