SADDLE UP!: Untold Stories about Vietnam from an Army Infantryman

by Charles Gorman, Sandra Wendel (Editor), Jack Kusler (Illustrator)

A Vietnam memoir with a different twist. Jennifer Branch was just two years old when her father Army Captain Branch was killed in combat in Vietnam. When she grew up, she discovered letters he had written home, and she wanted to know what her father was like from the men in his command. Through reunion groups, she found Charles Gorman, a guidance counselor in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, who had been Branch’s radioman.It was Jennifer’s request and Gor-man’s own sense of urgency to writeabout his combat tour in Vietnam in1969 that sparked the writing of thismemoir. Gorman dredges up the night-mares of the daytime patrols away fromthe relatively safe Fire Support Basesand forays into the deadly dangerous booby traps and punji pits in Hobo Woods. He documents the terrifying nighttime ambushes, call- ing in “dustoffs” to medevac out the dead and wounded to Cu Chi, and the daily indignities of living in monsoons or heat and humidity with mosquitoes, mines, and mortars.No need to see the movies about Vietnam, this is the real deal about riding the chopper’s skids and dropping into LZs, stepping carefully into the footsteps of the point man to avoid trip wires that could send you home in a body bag, zipping your buddies into those body bags, diving into water-filled rice paddies while under attack, and praying the mortars would fall short and allow you to go home alive or at least in one piece.

266 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 14, 2013

Reviews

[Linda L Kimbel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. I was in country at the same time frame, only i was with 2/12 25th , also a rto,

Great book,I also was an ego at the same time. Also saw Connie Stevens.
Same Christmas show, we were four rows back center stage