Bravo Troop: A Forward Observer's Vietnam Memoir

by William Watson

During the first half of 1969, Bravo Troop, 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry, 25th Infantry Division operated northwest of Saigon in the vicinity of Go Dau Ha, fighting in 15 actions on the Cambodian border, in the Boi Loi Woods, the Hobo Woods and Michelin Rubber Plantation and on the outskirts of Tay Ninh City. In that time, Bravo Troop saw 10 percent of its average field strength killed while inflicting much heavier losses on the enemy. This memoir vividly recounts those six months of intense armored cavalry combat in Vietnam through the eyes of an artillery forward observer, highlighting his fire direction techniques and the routines and frustrations of searching for the enemy and chaos of finding him.

378 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 8, 2022

About the author

This is William Watson (one space).

For the Scottish confederate, see William Watson.

For the British physicist, see William Watson.

For the British poet, see William Watson.

For the British botanist, see William Watson.

Reviews

[Mountain343 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wasn't so much a memoir as a diary of every day he served in the field. Page, after page, detailing what route they took, when they stopped for lunch, and when they gave up and decided to just quit for the day. A few insightful chapters of battles, and what an FO does, but for the most part he just sat on the APC, smoked a lot, and followed along on the map.

It starts off on a rough note with the prose, but he definitely gets better at telling the story as it goes on.