Combat Veterans Vietnam

In this compelling and meticulously researched audiobook on the Vietnam War era, David Gerhardt blends his riveting firsthand experience with documented facts. The result is a historical war memoir offering a comprehensive perspective on one of America's most notoriously divisive eras and brutal armed conflicts. Whether they fought in it, demonstrated against it, or subsisted through the tumultuous times, Vietnam belonged to the baby boomer generation.

We were a task force of 60 soldiers who were sent to an area of the Mekong Delta of Vietnam to build schools in poor rural villages. Their schools had been destroyed in WWII and these poor farmers were desperate to educate their children. There was great appreciation for our work. However, as you can imagine, the Viet Cong were determined to stop us. The Viet Cong launched attacks to stop us. It became clear that we were going to die. It was Vietnam 1968. My soldiers and I fought back. We improvised. We adjusted. We quickly learned what we needed to learn. We survived. The Viet Cong’s ...

The Vietnam War remains one of the most controversial events in American history, and it bitterly divided the nation, so it's somewhat ironic that the most famous monument commemorating the war is also on one of the most serene spots in the nation’s capital. The famous Vietnam Wall is a place of almost eerie silence where even children cease their chatter. Rising out of the ground like an ancient obelisk, it calls upon its visitors to stop talking and to look and gaze upon the magnitude of America’s great mistake, a war that began in whispers and ended in tears.

In clear, lucid prose, Vietnam War, Revised Edition explores the critical questions surrounding the United States' experience in Vietnam: What led President Lyndon B. Johnson to commit combat troops in 1965? How was it possible for the North Vietnamese to suffer a military defeat in the Tet Offensive in 1968 and yet achieve a political victory?

David W. Powell enlisted for a tour of duty in April 1966 with the US Marines after receiving an imminent draft notice. Believing he would be able to leverage his existing skills as a computer programmer, he never thought all they would see on his resume was his Karate expertise. Even less that he would wind up serving as a Rocket man in the jungles of Da Nang and Chu Lai for a 13 month tour in hell. David's journey from naive civilian to battle-hardened combat veteran shows us all how fragile our humanity really is.