Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Fantastic Book - Guns Up!

I have read a pile of military books over the years, and they are all pretty slow moving with some decent action here and there....except this one.
Once you crack it open, you're not going to put it down. M60 (0331) Machine Gunner in Vietnam.

Tony

Edited to add - It's about not being a pussy and hiding when the whole world is imploding around you.
And never, ever, cutting and running until that barrel melts to the ground..............

Sounds good.

Thanks, just bought it on eBay for $4.09

It takes about 50 pages to get rolling.....but after that....hold on to your ball sack.....you're in for an E-Ticket ride, my friend.

Tony

I’ll check it out Tony!

My dad is in his 80's and is a military historian, having read thousands of books on the topic. Every few years or so, he sends me a book that he thinks might be of interest to me.
In the past 30 or so years, none have really blown up my skirt. But this book is on a completely different level.

Tony

Johnnie Clark was a member of my sister's prayer group in St. Pete, Fl., back in the 1980's.
He sent me signed copies of both of his books, which I still have.

I read that book, gosh, must be at least 20 years ago. I am going to check it out again, thanks for the reminder!

great book read it in the 80's 5 or 6 times since then .. He a Fellow West Virginian .. so that helps .

My "brother" (long story) was a Marine M-60 gunner in 1969 around An Hoa. The local library doesn't have a copy so just ordered a used one off of Abe Books.

Thanks for the recommendation.

.

Thanks, Tony, for the recommendation of Guns Up!. After reading your suggestion, I dropped the book on my Kindle.

Heck, I'm halfway it now and it's only been about twelve hours.

Yep, it's an excellent read.

Blessings,

Steve

PS. By the way, I commonly read four or five books at the same time. Two others I'm currently reading are Storm Watch by C.J. Box and Red Headed Yukon Guide and Trapper by Terry Wilkinson.

Trust me, both totally satisfy. ST

.

Just bought a used copy off ebay 4.08 free shipping Thanks. I used to work with a guy, that was a door gunner for a chopper in Nam he had some great stories, backed them up with pictures. The guns would sometimes get so hot they would warp, had pictures of them also. He said he lost alot of buddies over there.

I recommend 30 Days have September by James Strauss, a Vietnam War story! A true to life account by a Marine Lt.

Thanks for the info on this. About half way through. It moves.

Just finished reading this last night, definitely a great read that's hard to put down. The fact that it was set largely around An Hoa was of particular interest.

In my post above I mentioned my brother Bob, actually a street kid my mother took in, was a Marine 0331 machine gunner operating around An Hoa starting just a few months after (or maybe overlapping) the time frame of the book. He would have humped the very same territory as the protagonist of the book. Like most vets he never said much about what he saw or did, just a couple of stories here and there, mostly about other Marines he was in awe of. One story he did tell was about being charged by a machete wielding VC one morning while he was squatting and taking a dump.

Anyway, the book really gave me a new insight into the day to day grind he lived through, I might as well have been reading about Bob since his overall experiences would have been pretty much identical.

Coincidentally, the author was sent home after his second wound nine months into his tour - first one was shrapnel from a grenade and the second being shot in the leg, Bob also got a medical discharge after his second wound, also nine months into his tour, first one was shrapnel from a grenade and the second was from being shot through the arm.

Thanks for posting. I read this awhile ago. Outstanding book! I'll dig it out for a re-read.

I'm almost finished with it.

Good read so far.

I just finished the book a couple of nights ago. I could have read a couple thousand more pages easily...but the intensity of the experience is very well expressed, and so much so that I felt relief for the writer when he finally was out on an airplane to GTHO of there. Damn good read.

I'll probably hang onto it and read it again in a few years.