Our Vietnam Wars Books 1 - 4 - William F. Brown

Written by William F. Brown
Format: M4B
Bitrate: 128 Kbps

This could be the most important book you’ll read this year. It isn’t another war book. It is a book about people, and it contains the personal stories of 100 Vietnam Veterans who served there.
Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines, from the late 1950s to 1975 we served from the Delta to the DMZ, and from Thailand to Yankee Station in the South China Sea. Infantry grunts, truck drivers, medics, helicopter pilots, nurses, clerk typists, jet pilots, mechanics, staff officers, repairmen, artillerymen, B-52 bombardiers, MPs, and doctors, we were black, white, and Hispanic, male and female. We were only in our teens and early twenties, but our stories continue to resonate through the years.
January 30 marks the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive, the seminal event of a war that dominated my generation and changed lives. Some of the men and women in this book are true war heroes. Most were just trying to survive. If you were there, you understand. If you weren’t, my hope is that through these stories you will.
Breaking down the stereotypes, they tell who we were, the jobs we did, our memories of that time and place and how it changed us, and what we did after we came home.
Over 58,200 of us paid the ultimate price, but the war didn’t end when the last US helicopter lifted off from the roof of the US Embassy in Saigon. It continues to take its ugly toll on many who did come home. Instead of bands and parades, we got PTSD and Agent Orange, diabetes, ischemic heart disease, neuropathy, leukemia, Hodgkin’s Disease, and prostate cancer, and many more. As they say, “Vietnam: the gift that keeps on giving.

Book 2

Want to know what Vietnam was really like?

Every American should read them to learn what our young men and women went through over there.

From a Marine sniper in Hue, to a medevac dust-off pilot going into a hot LZ, Navy Corpsmen, A-6 pilots taking out bridges and SAM sites in North Vietnam, a nurse on the USS Repose, combat medics deep in the jungle, machine gunners in I-Corps, mechanics working on the rolling deck of a big carrier on Yankee Station, squad leaders on infantry sweeps in “the Arizona Territory,” truck convoys under fire, riverine patrol boats in the Delta, Coast Guard “Jolly Green” search and rescue helicopters pulling downed pilots from the jungle, tank platoons in an all-out armor assault, Loach pilots in hunter-killer teams, and many more — from the Delta to the DMZ, this book puts you in their boots.

Some of us were drafted. Some enlisted. Some were true war heroes, but most were just trying to survive. As everyone “in-country” knew, Vietnam was all about luck, good or bad. If you were there, you understand. If you weren’t, grab a copy and start reading, anywhere in the book. The stories are like Doritos. Try a few and you won’t be able to stop.

The Vietnam War was the seminal event of my generation and affected so many lives. Over 58,200 of us paid the ultimate price, but the war didn’t end when the last US helicopter lifted off from the roof of the US Embassy in Saigon. It continues to take its ugly toll on many who did come home. Instead of bands and parades, we got PTSD and Agent Orange, diabetes, ischemic heart disease, neuropathy, leukemia, Hodgkin’s Disease, and prostate cancer, and many more. As they say, “Vietnam is the gift that keeps on giving.”

Unfortunately, what little our kids and grandkids know of the war comes from books that only focus on one soldier, one unit, and one year, or movies like Oliver Stone’s Platoon and Hamburger Hill, leaving people to think that all we did was crawl through the jungle on the Cambodian border smoking dope. But that wasn’t how most of us spent our year. In February, I published Volume 1. Due to the amazing response it received from vets and their families, I’m publishing Volume 2, with even more interesting, exciting, and informative stories. Hopefully, they will help correct that narrative.

Book 3

Want to know what the Vietnam War was really like? These are true stories from real people caught up in an all too real war. They tell who we were, our jobs and memories of the place, and what we did after we came home. From a Marine ambulance driver at Khe Sanh, Special Ops troops fighting a guerrilla war against the VC and NVA, Recon pilots, artillerymen on Christmas Eve, a Navy seaman below decks fighting a catastrophic fire on the USS Oriskany, a New Zealand artillery unit firing round after round to stop an NVA assault, Marine Corpsmen saving the wounded under fire, patrolling the jungle with New Zealand infantry, walking into Khe Sanh with the 1st Cav as they broke the siege, riding in an APC with the armored cav across the hills in I Corps, being shot down in Cambodia with a Huey pilot, plus cooks, clerks, truck drivers, and gunship pilots, combat medics, and Marine grunts and many more — from the Delta to the DMZ and Thailand to the South China Sea, this book puts you in their boots. While most Vietnam War books only cover one guy, one unit, one place, and one year, Volume 1, Volume 2, and now Volume 3 span all the war years from 1962 to 1975. Some of us were drafted. Some enlisted. Some were legit war heroes, but most were just trying to survive. As everyone “in-country” knew, Vietnam mostly came down to luck, good or bad. If you were there, you understand. If you weren’t, grab a copy and start reading anywhere in the book. The stories are like Doritos. Try a few. I guarantee and you won’t be able to stop.

Book 4

Want to know what Vietnam was really like?
Real stories told by real people, in their own words, 100 veterans, men and women, caught up in an all too real war. From the Delta to the DMZ, come walk in their boots. If you were there, you understand. If you weren’t, grab a copy and you will, because they’re like Doritos. Try a few and you won’t be able to stop.

The Vietnam War dominated my generation and affected so many lives in so many different ways. Some of us were drafted. Some enlisted. Some became war heroes, intentional or not, but most of us were just trying to survive. Army, Marines, Air Force, Navy, or Coast Guard, American, Australian, or New Zealanders, Vietnam was all about luck, good or bad. And there were hundreds of different wars depending on where you were, the year you were there, your service, branch, unit, rank, job, and race. Whether we were nurses, helicopter pilots, infantryman, Rangers, clerk typists, combat medics, engineers, MPs, Platoon Leaders, sailors on riverine patrols up the rivers, artillerymen, or cooks, from 1956 to 1976 from the Delta to the DMZ, these stories tell who we were, the jobs we did, our memories of that time and place, how it changed us, and what we did after we came home.