Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Military Recommended VietNam Book

I�ve been reading books about our troops in Vietnam for several years and have just finished (IMHO) the best of the many I�ve read. It is a story about Lance Sijan, who was awarded the nation�s highest decoration for valor, the Medal of Honor. Lt Sijan was a pilot who went down over Laos on November 9, 1967 and spent six weeks evading the North Vietnamese while suffering from extreme injuries incurred when he ejected from his crashing F4C. He was finally captured and even though he had not eaten hardly anything and with very little water for the last six weeks and with both bones below the knee broken and protruding thru the skin of his left leg, he was able to overpower his NVA guard and escape. I could go on for several pages, but rather than spoil the story for you, I HIGHLY recommend you read INTO THE MOUTH OF THE CAT by Malcolm McConnell. If you read the hardback version, may I recommend you do NOT read about the book on the inside flaps of the cover before reading the book. It tells how the book ends and I hate reading a book and knowing how it will end.

Have read so many that I hesitate to recommend any particular one because AO's were so varied as were MO's and every experience was so different. For the best read on a REMF who dabbed with danger a tad here and there, Dak To, and experienced some interesting R & R's plus an extra unusual tour in Thailand, read "A Hard Rain Fell." It is a true story and actually feels as though you are there except for the heat and stink.

"A Hard Rain Fell" is a good one. I read it years ago, but the experiences it related were probably the most realistic version of events that I ever read.

BMT

Chicken Hawk was my favorite. A helicopter pilots account from his first to last day there.

I lived it, ain't interested in reading about it!

I don't know about any books, but probably best movie that ever made on the subject that I've seen is called (The Deer Hunter) . It is a very fair description of those times focused on one community and their sacrifices.

Try "Blood on The Risers",by John Leppelman,
173rd ABN,2/503,"recon",67-68 true storys,
My unit,I was there then,"Rawhide",the herd.
ISBN 0-7394-2798-9
any others, about 173rd?
Thanks,Don

I have a friend that is in the 173rd Airborne Brigade "Sky Soldiers" right now. Right now their in Vicenza, Italy. They just returned from Iraq not that long ago.