A Filthy Way to Die: Collected Memories of the Vietnam War

by Ed Linz

The author, a retired Navy Commander, presents a unique view of the Vietnam War while providing an understanding of the horror, brutality, chaos, and insanity of war. His interviews with 61 members of the U.S. Naval Academy Class of 1965 who served during the war in Vietnam include candid, first-hand accounts of American action on the ground, in the air, on the rivers, and offshore. Their stories involve Marines fighting bloody battles for hills soon abandoned after being captured; Naval aviators watching their wingman being shot down on missions targeting meaningless targets while Hanoi remained off-limits; "Brown Water Navy" sailors conducting ambushes and being ambushed,; Swift boats conducting dangerous operations on the rivers and canals of the Mekong Delta; firefights on gunboats during secret forays into Cambodia; clandestine assassination missions with the CIA; secret night operations into North Vietnam; offshore bombardment where targets may, or may not, be enemy; and many other aspects of this bloody, and preventable, war.

The horrific losses were not limited to the 58,000 Americans who lost their lives and over 300,000 others who were wounded, but included three million Vietnamese (many of whom were innocent civilians) and countless Laotians and Cambodians.

Linz presents background information explaining how the United States became involved in a decades-long diplomatic slippery slope leading to American Marines coming ashore at Da Nang in early 1965, just prior to his class graduating from the Naval Academy. He describes how each officer, many of whom could not locate Vietnam on a map when entering the Academy in 1961, ended up fighting a frustrating, and deadly, war halfway around the world. Nine of these classmates died during service in Vietnam, some following capture by the enemy. It was indeed a filthy way to die.

588 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 8, 2023

Reviews

[a.t.m. · Rating 5 out of 5]

outstanding book on individual Vietnam war stories told by naval academy officers.

The author has written one of the best books on the Vietnam War and the men , who fought it. All the stories contained here in are from men, who graduated from the Naval Academy. Gifted men, educated, and willing to respond to the nation’s call to serve during a very difficult time in our country. The book tells it like it is and it is a difficult read at times because so many young men did not come home alive. I highly recommend this book and feel that it should be required reading at the Academy.

[Glenn Ambort · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harrowing Read!

Only read this book if you truly want to know what war is like from the point of view of soldiers, sailors, Marines, and air men and women who actually do the fighting, dying, and surviving in the most dreadful of human activities, the killing of other human beings.

[John C. Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read..

Interesting set of vignettes about USN service. I was in the surface Navy during this time but I didn't know about the bombing restrictions placed on pilots that seemed to frustrate all of them in the book. I also had little exposure to the operations of swift boats and PBR's.

[Bill Elston · Rating 4 out of 5]

some interesting stories from individuals

Not a favorite book, mostly I did not like the format. Good stories by Lintz’s classmates. Not one I’d read again.