Vietnam Combat Commander

This memoir takes an unvarnished, first-hand look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of an infantryman's life in the Vietnam war zone. Depicting both the euphoria of success and the depression and remorse of failure, the real-life stories of Colonel George Maudin cover two tours in the Vietnam War, one with the 1st Cavalry Division in the central highlands and another with the 9th Infantry Division in the Mekong Delta. Some stories are so bizarre that one is frequently left with little recourse but to laugh. Others, conversely, are tragic, told from a dark abyss with the dirty, wet, and cold infantryman. Human frailty is elucidated when anger and frustration build within the fighting troops, prompting them to resort to any means to punish the elusive enemy. Some of the stories reveal the suffering of innocents at the hands of careless or over-zealous Americans. Taken together, these individual moments from two tours in a bloody war weave a complex tapestry, containing both the dread and terror inherent to the war, as well as the inevitable light-heartedness and victorious moments that can't help but spring from the camaraderie of brothers in arms.