Vietnam Biography

In Vietnam, Chuck and Tom Hagel served side by side in the same rifle platoon. Together they fought in the Mekong Delta, battled snipers in Saigon, and chased the enemy through the jungle, and each saved the other's life under fire. But when their one-year tour was over, these two brothers came home side by side but no longer in step - one supporting the war, the other hating it.

While serving as a crew chief aboard a US Air Force Rescue helicopter, Airman First Class William A. Robinson was shot down and captured in Ha Tinh Province, North Vietnam, on September 20, 1965. After a brief stint at the "Hanoi Hilton", Robinson endured 2,703 days in multiple North Vietnamese prison camps, including the notorious Briarpatch and various compounds at Cu Loc, known by the inmates as the Zoo.

In this intimate memoir, Perry A. Ulander chronicles with powerful clarity the bewildering predicament he confronted and the fellowship and guidance that transformed him during the year he served as an American GI in the jungles of Vietnam. Conveying with unadorned precision the harrowing experiences that shattered his core beliefs, Ulander also captures the camaraderie and humor of his platoon, the hostility between "lifers" and draftees, the physical hardships of reconnaissance missions, and the unrelenting apprehension underlying everyday life.

Although he's fighting in a war he never asked to join, Len suffers a severe head wound. No one thinks he'll survive, but he does, and he returns home to his loving wife, Luanna. Once back home, he learns to talk, walk, be self-sufficient, and even graduates from college. But nightmares of the war still haunt Len. Years later, seeking closure, he visits the Vietnam War Memorial to pay tribute to his brothers who died. But for some reason, none of their names are listed. Now, Len must find out if the fate of his comrades is how he remembers, or if something else happened altogether.

Sandra’s Hands is a true personal story written by a young teacher responding to the challenge of educating children who have been severely traumatized by violence. The book describes events in the life of Paul Berg between the years of 1966 and 1976, beginning with Berg’s service in the Vietnam War and following his life as he returns to America. Berg struggles to adjust to civilian life, becomes a Bureau of Indian Affairs teacher, and encounters another war on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Unlike most childhoods, mine was far from being a happy one. My siblings and I, as well as the generation before us, were born at a time when warplanes, gunfire, foreign men in uniform, constant evacuations, and locals hiding under bunkers or war tunnels were commonplace. Now, whenever I see playgrounds that are lush with trees and green grasses and filled with children on swings, who are laughing while being pushed by their parents, I cannot help but feel a tinge of envy.

The Gunner and the Grunt is written in the voices of two soldiers who fought in the same battles as members of the same recon unit but from different angles. Michael Kelley, the "Gunner," was flying in an armed helicopter above the jungle providing suppressive fire support, while Peter Burbank, the "Grunt," was down in the jungle on foot patrol involved in fire fights with Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army troops. The book follows these two Boston boys from army training through deployment to the war zone and the shock of first combat missions.

Newlywed Bev Marshall was following her dream when she married her high school sweetheart. She would earn her English degree in three years and find a teaching job to help send her husband to law school at Ole Miss. After less than two months of married life, Butch, her husband, changed their plans when he signed up to be a pilot in the USAF. In less than two years' time he was headed to Vietnam. Bev was headed back home to live with her parents for the year Butch would be in Southeast Asia.

This is a captivating account of a Marine Rifle Squad as it prepared for deployment to Vietnam, and establishing the enclave south of Da Nang, Vietnam. Mentored by Korean Veterans, the Marine Riflemen become veterans tested in the rice paddies at Da Nang, Phu Bai, and the highlands of Khe Sanh.

Amity Whitford dared to stake her own claim on the endless plains of Western Kansas. She built her homestead, Dove's Nest, with her bare hands. But the ravages of the sun and drying winds took their toll.

Magnet Ass and the Stone-Cold Truck Hunters is a Vietnam war memoir about Captain Alan "Magnet Ass" Milacek, the "man who flew his plane on one wing". It is a war story. But it is also not a war story. It has everything to do with a white-hot mission over the Plain of Jars in 1970, for which 10 men earned The Mackay Trophy, one of history's most coveted aviation awards.

This project has taken me a lot longer than anticipated. I would guess that I’ve been at it for more than 20 years. It started as a result of wanting to let the mother of a fallen soldier know what happened to her son, as well as where his death took place. She and I had been in contact over the years, during which she asked quite a few questions; so I began writing it all down.

In That Time tells the story of the American experience in Vietnam through the life of Michael O'Donnell, a bright young musician and poet who served as a soldier and helicopter pilot. O'Donnell wrote with great sensitivity and poetic force, and his best-known poem is among the most beloved of the war. In 1970, during an attempt to rescue fellow soldiers stranded under heavy fire, O'Donnell's helicopter was shot down in the jungles of Cambodia. He remained missing in action for almost three decades.

In 1967, US Air Force fighter pilot James Shively was shot down over North Vietnam. After ejecting from his F-105 Thunderchief aircraft, he landed in a rice paddy and was captured by the North Vietnamese Army. For the next six years, Shively endured brutal treatment at the hands of the enemy in Hanoi prison camps. Bound in iron stocks at the Hanoi Hilton, unable to get home to his loved ones, Shively contemplated suicide. Yet somehow he found hope - and he became determined to help his fellow POWs survive.

Much has been written about America's war in Vietnam, and an enduring and troubling subtext is the composition of the body of soldiers that made up the US troop deployment: from the initially well-trained and disciplined group of largely elite units that served in the mid-sixties to what has been termed an "armed mob" by the end of that decade and into the early 1970s.

Based on an incredible true story, a young marine fights an unbelievable battle in the abyss of Vietnam. Get a front-row seat to the intense action, courage, and sacrifice he and other marines endured. Experience the ferocity of battle, the deep bonds of brotherhood, and the stinging sweat of fear that hangs persistently over the jungle canopy. Imagine lying in a foxhole when a “Broken Arrow” goes into effect, as the enemy sappers overtake their position, forcing these young soldiers to fight the enemy hand to hand.

An American Combat Bird Dog Pilot is a compelling look at the life and times of a member of the Silent Generation. Mike Leonard’s story chronicles not only his breathtaking combat adventures, but the unforeseen perils that nearly sidetracked him during his time as an international sales executive. This spellbinding narrative paints a vivid portrait of a man, as the Chinese proverb clearly states, "living in interesting times".

You are with the author when he ejects from his burning Navy jet onto a karst ridge near Hanoi. What follows in this meticulously researched memoir is an account of one of the most implausible and heroic rescues of the air-war - and the aftermath. The events immediately following his rescue carry the author to a secret base in Laos and then to a makeshift hospital in Saigon. The larger story, however, is of the author’s complex relationship with Vietnam. It begins in Saigon, where he completes high school and comes to love the Vietnamese people.

John R. Deane, Jr. (1919-2013) was born with all the advantages a man needs to succeed in a career in the US Army, and he capitalized on his many opportunities in spectacular fashion. The son of one of George C. Marshall's closest assistants, Deane graduated from West Point with the first class of World War II and served in combat under the dynamic General Terry de la Mesa Allen, Sr.

The rise of Adolf Hitler, America’s Great Depression in the heartland, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, American life following World War II, the Korean War, America’s development of atomic weapons in the Cold War age, the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and the Mariel boatlift. Captain Allen Brady not only witnessed all of these events but actually participated in them, in many instances as a US Naval Aviator.