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1 An Introduction to the Past Raised in a small town in rural South Dakota, the eldest of five kids who grew up in a secure and supportive family nest, I was ready to spread my wings when the time came. My mother and father were very decent and honorable people, devout and sincere. They loved each other and lived out their dream of how they thought being married and creating a family should be. They valued education and recognized achievement. They set limits and enforced the rules. They also understood slackers and gave whiney behavior short shrift. Good friends to their neighbors, my folks had a sense of humor and enjoyed life despite the daily stresses and strains of keeping it all on track. Most of the big issues, the world-class perplexities, were presented as reassuringly straightforward and clear-cut. The answers tended toward black or white with little need for ambiguity. One of the many truths my brothers and sisters and I absorbed held that America’s virtues were an inspiration to humankind everywhere. We knew deep in our bones that being an American was something special.We Americans held ourselves to a higher standard.Although our leaders might occasionally reveal a human foible, they were committed to correct directions, wonderfully selfless and true. The ideals I absorbed at my parents’ dinner table reflected the confidence of a triumphant post-WWII America and my patriotism developed early. It took years for cracks to appear in the worldview of my youth. I first arrived in South Vietnam in June 1967 and joined the 1st Brigade of the famous 101st Airborne Division. My appearance was something of a homecoming; I’d previously served in the division at Ft. Campbell as an enlisted paratrooper before finishing college.Returning to the 101st reunited me with old comrades who insisted on seeking me out. They thought it hilarious to salute a former sergeant who had reappeared wearing a new lieutenant’s 2 Chapter 1 shiny gold bars. An infantry platoon leader’s job and later a rifle company commander’s responsibilities were something I understood and loved doing. Serving as a company grade infantry officer in combat was a terrific adventure , providing the most soul-testing challenges and deeply fulfilling satisfactions imaginable. When the events described in this book took place I’d just completed three years in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Division. Those tours entailed a lot of slogging through rice paddies and living in mountainous jungles for months at a time. I’d participated in a number of major battles to include Tet 1968 when my unit initially fought in the outskirts of Saigon before joining the battle to recapture Hue. That bloody affair was followed by a bruising campaign to clear the major road west from Hue to the A Shau Valley on the Laotian border. I was involved in other campaigns out on the Cambodian border as well as in the far northern parts of the country. In 1971 I was at Khe Sanh when the firebase and runway were reactivated for the South Vietnamese army’s disastrous incursion into Laos. During those years the harsh realities of combat were repeatedly reinforced by deadly encounters with the enemy that were always sobering and occasionally horrendous. Over time my sense of personal adventure matured and developed into a professionalism rooted in my service to the army and the nation. I felt that my commitment, as well as the sacrifices made by many of my comrades, was validated by Washington’s support for Indochina in general and South Vietnam in particular. The size and duration of this country’s effort reinforced the political rhetoric; the assistance the United States provided over a series of administrations influenced my decision to commit to the long haul. As a result I found myself living out one of my mother’s favorite dictums , which held that actions speak louder than words. But by late 1971, with my third tour completed, it had become crystal clear the Nixon administration was pulling the plug on Indochina. In fact America’s departure had become a stampede for the exit, leaving mountains and oceans of materials for our erstwhile allies to absorb whether they were ready or able or not. Even though the American army, to include the 101st Airborne Division, was pulling out, my fidelity to the mission remained as it had been. The purpose of the fight I’d embraced years before had not changed...

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