Blood Trails: The Combat Diary of a Foot Soldier in Vietnam

by Christopher Ronnau

BAPTISM BY FIREChris Ronnau volunteered for the Army and was sent to Vietnam in January 1967, armed with an M-14 rifle and American Express traveler’s checks. But the latter soon proved particularly pointless as the private first class found himself in the thick of two pivotal, fiercely fought Big Red One operations, going head-to-head against crack Viet cong and NVA troops in the notorious Iron Triangle and along the treacherous Cambodian border near Tay Ninh.Patrols, ambushes, plunging down VC tunnels, search and destroy missions–there were many ways to drive the enemy from his own backyard, as Ronnau quickly discovered. Based on the journal Ronnau kept in Vietnam, Blood Trails captures the hellish jungle war in all its stark life-and-death immediacy. This wrenching chronicle is also stirring testimony to the quiet courage of those unsung American heroes, many not yet twenty-one, who had a job to do and did it without complaint–fighting, sacrificing, and dying for their country. Includes sixteen pages of rare and never-before-seen combat photos

Genres: War, History, Military Fiction

338 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 29, 2006

Reviews

[Ryan Toh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blood Trails is an autobiographical novel about the Vietnam war by Christopher Ronnau. As an autobiography, the book was more dry than fiction, due to the fact that events can’t be both historically accurate and detailed. However, it contained a lot of important historical information, and it appears to be a relatively reliable source from the author's word.

Christopher Ronnau hides nothing as he reveals all that he experienced during the war, telling things as they were for him, without glorification or spin. He doesn’t get into politics at all, for better or for worse. The war is portrayed with all it’s many faces, and much of the material is inappropriate for sensitive audiences.

The book focuses on the day to day experience in the the frontlines of the Vietnam war and the lives and interactions of the soldiers. I found it surprising that at times, many of the high ranking officers didn't take the lives of the soldiers as seriously as they should have.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the history of war, and the conditions soldiers face in modern warfare. This serves as one of the few highly detailed primary sources of the Vietnam War in the perspective of the foot soldier. As war remains a major player in the lives of many, to better understand the situation it is best to look at first hand accounts of it.

[John McNair · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read more than a few of these memoirs from Vietnam (thank goodness they're being written now) and found this one to be refreshingly self-deprecating and honest. Chris Ronnau provides well-described visuals of an infantryman's daily life, and reveals quite well the nature of young male Americans of mixed backgrounds and perhaps less than average education. It's a 'warts and all' biography. Especially interesting - since you don't get it in every story - is his description of his being wounded and his trip back through the casevac and medical system. This is a good and easy read.

[Robert A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author kept a detailed journal about his life as a combat infantry soldier in Vietnam. He describes life as it existed in both base camp and in the field, the strengths and weaknesses of individuals in and out of combat. The book captures the essence of human nature, which is one important aspect of this book. It is important and relevant because it describes small unit combat operations. Read it so you will have an understanding of the sacrifices made by "grunts" for our country.

[Greg Dombek · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting read and a great insight into the everyday grunt in Vietnam. It doesn't come across as embellished or fantastic, just the everyday grind of life as a soldier. Excellent perspective.

[Anatoly Maslennikov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Воспоминания обычного солдата о войне. Совсем обычного.
Не переворачивает представления о Вьетнаме, не шокирует, ничего такого, но написано хорошо.

[Jorge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book, a page turner. Tells you how it was the life of a grunt on the ground. One of the best books I have read about the Vuetnam War

[Steve Cripwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is not full of gung-ho exploits and real or imagined acts of bravery but although they no doubt happened they are played down as an every day in Vietnam experience.

A good read

[steve portman · Rating 4 out of 5]

12months at war.

A good and honest account of the Vietnam war. It portrays the way ordinary soldiers had to do there and their fears and hopes.

[Robert McCurley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable

I liked it because it wasn't all about the combat, but also about the trials and tribulations of a foot soldier in a combat zone.

[Robert Neil Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew tired of Vietnam memoirs a while ago with all their pretensions to literature - Tim O'Brien's nonsense was the last straw for me. My faith is restored, however, by this matter-of-fact memoir of a volunteer grunt who served 7 months in the war before being seriously wounded and shipped home. It is the very ordinariness of Ronnau's experience that stands out; the routine anxieties of being a common soldier interspersed with terrifying firefights against an enemy he rarely saw. Ronnau writes simply and well, and I gained a true sense of what it was really like for the average GI. 10/10

[Shannon Callahan]

I felt out of respect for him that I shouldn’t put up any score. Cause this is his diary during his time in Vietnam. Opposed to fiction book with climax etc etc...it was the ordinary life of foot soldier in Vietnam. All about grunt works all day and night!

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

A day in the life of an infantryman in Vietnam. Silence, violence, silence… extreme boredom followed by extreme violence. This book takes you through what the day to day life was like. At no point does he preach politics. From his point of view, he’s a foot soldier and does what he’s told.

[John Podlaski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ended up purchasing a copy of Blood Trails from Amazon.UK because I wanted to establish an account on that side of the world. But I couldn't wait for it to arrive, so I purchased a Kindle e-book version too and began reading it immediately. Like Chris, I also kept a diary when in Vietnam and referred to it when writing my own novel.

I truly loved Blood Trails and could relate to many of the anecdotes within the story. My outfit, the 25th Division, also patrolled around Tay Ninh and Cambodia and I can recall many of those things described in the book. Some reviewers have posted that Blood Trails was just another grunt story. It is, but there are also 3.5 million Vietnam war stories out there - some of us have chosen to write about them. Although many of the books are the same in the sense of writing about the suffering of patrolling and sleeping in the bug infested jungles, every one of them is unique and personal. I have read many Vietnam novels as well, but I always find them educational and I learn from them. I think it is important for readers who may have known teenagers that went to war in Vietnam, to read books like Blood Trails to better understand why these warriors were so different upon their return. War is hell and they lived there.

Of the 3.5 million troops that eventually served in Vietnam, only 10% of them were assigned to the Infantry. These were the ground pounders that actually humped through the jungles, avoided booby traps, stumbled into fortified enemy positions, and actually did the face to face fighting. This is not meant to belittle the other 90%, because without their support, the infantry soldiers would not have survived. It should also be noted that the firebases and base camps were sometimes more dangerous than in the jungle, especially when they were mortared, rocketed and assaulted by the enemy. So each story is unique and written from a different perspective.

When reading these different stories, I find myself drawn into it as if I am right there with them in the story. I can feel their fear, anticipation, awe, suspense and find myself relieved when the patrol finally returns to safety.

Blood Trails deserves five stars and will be placed in the top twenty of my all-time best books about the war. It is highly recommended and should be read by those interested in joining the service or wanting to know what life in the jungle was really like.

Great job Chris! Welcome Home Brother!

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blood Trails is an intriguing dairy of a US Army foot soldier in Vietnam. The dairy is a non-fiction piece of writing written by the author during his tour in the Vietnam War. His accounts of the Vietnam war are not as graphic or intense as other books such as The Short-Timers or Fields of Fire, which are vaguely non-fiction accounts of the war, but Blood Trials does give us a very real perspective on the everyday life of a grunt in Vietnam.

Though the descriptive language in Blood Trails is not the best in this book, it does give us plentiful glimpses of what it was like to be a grunt and how it would feel. The events within Blood Trails is well explained, though we cannot (unless with a creative and well-informed imagination) see what the grunt sees, we do know what the grunt knows. Ronnau does a great job relaying his knowledge and thoughts into the book.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know what it was like for soldiers in the Vietnam War. Due to the nature of the events I would only recommend it to certain age levels, approximately 16 and older. It was a very enjoyable book to read, the scenes were well played through in my head and sometimes funny. Though there are a few humorous scenes in Blood Trails, Ronnau does not deviate from the fact that war is no laughing matter.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blood Trails, Christopher Ronnau's Diary from his deployment in Vietnam. This book will take you through how Christopher, who was a common foot soldier, thought and felt about the war. It doesn't compare to the amount of detail that other Vietnam War books but his being vague does not ruin the book, it adds more to the feeling of the book. Through his vagueness you see the psychological barrier that is put up to protect himself, and experience his personality.

Christopher take you through many of the different situations he was in, and even though he wasn't descriptive his writing was pure. The information that you didn't receive through details gives room for the reader to personalize the book, almost as if you (the reader) was with him his whole deployment. Although a risky technique for a book, it worked out perfect. Also, you have to take into account that this wasn't written to become a book. It was written to document Vietnam through his own thoughts and feelings.

If I had to reccomend this book to anyone, I would recommend this book to anyone who wanted a truely personal veiw of the Vietnam war. However, I would also say to read other diarys from the war as Christopher is not descriptive and this is only one persons view. In my opinion this was a good book, it had drama and action, and it was true.

[Steve Woods · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very simply written account of one soldier's tour in Vietnam. He clearly kept detailed diaries, would that we all hadh ad the presence of mind. He tell it the way he experienced it and makes no pretensions about the account being any more than just that, his own personal account. It is written with dry humour so common to soldiers and has the ring of truth. I really enjoyed it often coming across observations he made while in Vietnam that I too made, as I am sure did thousands of others. In may ways it was a trip down memeory lane. A good read for anyone with a shared experience or who might like to know what it was really like at the nitty gritty level.

[Xon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems that I am always picking up books on the major battles, the war heroes, or significant events that change history. This book had none of that, but I liked it just as much if not more. I imagine that this was the Vietnam War for the majority of soldiers who fought on the ground. A diary of boredom, confusion, fear, and the war's everyday mundane events. The pace is slow, but I imagine that accurately reflects how slow the 365 day countdown was. My overall perspective of Vietnam grew tremendously with this book despite lacking many of the story lines that usually draw me to a war book.

[Lucky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is based on the author's journal as an infantryman in the Vietnam War. Though the title and cover, may lead you to believe this is some kind of macho RAMBO story for teenage boys, it is a thoughtful and realistic depiction of daily life in Vietnam. I could often feel the author's boredom, anticipation, fear, frustration, and sorrow throughout the book. I would certainly rank this amongst other war classics such as "All's Quiet On The Western Front", "Red Badge Of Courage", "Jonny Got His Gun", and "The Things They Carried"

[Sandra Strange · Rating 1 out of 5]

This war narrative of Vietnam is too frank: too many f--words and other language, too much sexual content to keep around for students to read.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

You'd think this would be great. But not any memoir is great, not even if the subject matter is utterly compelling. Gave up 30 pages in.

[Risk105 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written - I found it hard to put down

[Crystal Hoang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ronnau provides a lot of information about the American soldiers throughout the Viet Nam War. After reading this, I have understood more of the point of view of the soldiers.