Joseph L. Galloway - They Were Soldiers: The Sacrifices and Contributions of Our Vietnam Veterans

Information about External Hyperlinks in this ebook

Please note that the endnotes in this ebook may contain hyperlinks to external websites as part of bibliographic citations. These hyperlinks have not been activated by the publisher, who cannot verify the accuracy of these links beyond the date of publication

PRAISE FOR THEY WERE SOLDIERS

Nearly three million young Americans served in the Vietnam War and came home to no welcome and no respect in a nation divided and angry over that war. Hollywood and much of the media branded this generation, as great in every way as their fathers generation, with all the sins of a very few. It was a time of bitterness and sadness. Now old Vietnam hands Marvin J. Wolf and Joe Galloway have interviewed and profiled half a hundred Vietnam veterans to paint a much more accurate picture of a generation that came home determined to do well for their communities and our country. From Colin Powell and Barry McCaffrey, who soldiered on to four-star rank and high political office; to marine Fred Smith, who founded and built FedEx; to Diane Carlson Evans, an army nurse who demanded that the sacrifices of the women also be recognizedthese riveting stories in They Were Soldiers are an important contribution to the national weal. I challenge you to read these stories of a Great Generation with dry eyes.

STEVEN PRESSFIELD, New York Times BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF The War of Art

We have conveniently and collectively erased the Vietnam War from most of our memoriesit didnt work out the way our myths tell us American wars shouldbut we cannot erase the experiences of those who fought in it. They are brought to life magnificently in They Were Soldiers, which is a vivid and heroic reminder that we forget at our own peril.

KEN BURNS, AWARD-WINNING FILMMAKER

I loved reading They Were Soldiers. It was like hanging around with my veteran friends at a reunion listening to them tell me not what they did in the war, but what they did with their lives, which is far more interesting.

KARL MARLANTES, New York Times BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF Matterhorn

An impressive assembly of inspiring stories of our Vietnam generation who went and did what our nation asked in combat with as much intrepid courage, skill, fierce devotion to each other, sacrifice, and a will to win as any generation in our nations history.

FRED FRANKS, GENERAL, US ARMY (RET.)

BOOKS BY JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY

We Were Soldiers Once... and Young: Ia Drangthe Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam (with Harold G. Moore)

We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam (with Harold G. Moore)

BOOKS BY MARVIN J. WOLF

Nonfiction

The Japanese Conspiracy: The Plot to Dominate Industry Worldwideand How to Deal with It

Fallen Angels: Chronicles of L.A. Crime and Mystery (with Katherine Mader)

Platinum Crime (with Armand Grant)

Beating the Odds: The Untold Story Behind the Rise of ABC (with Leonard Goldenson)

Rotten Apples: True Stories of New York Crime and Mystery (with Katherine Mader)

Family Blood: The True Story of the Yom Kippur Murders (with Larry Attebery)

Perfect Crimes (with Katherine Mader)

Where White Men Fear to Tread: The Autobiography of Russell Means (with Russell Means)

Buddhas Child: My Fight to Save Vietnam (with Nguyen Cao Ky)

Abandoned in Hell: The Fight for Vietnams Firebase Kate (with William Albracht)

Fiction

For Whom the Shofar Blows

A Scribe Dies in Brooklyn

A Tale of Two Rabbis

M-9: A Chelmin and Spaulding CID Mystery

2020 Joseph L. Galloway and Marvin J. Wolf

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Nelson Books, an imprint of Thomas Nelson. Nelson Books and Thomas Nelson are registered trademarks of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc.

Thomas Nelson titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

Any Internet addresses, phone numbers, or company or product information printed in this book are offered as a resource and are not intended in any way to be or to imply an endorsement by Thomas Nelson, nor does Thomas Nelson vouch for the existence, content, or services of these sites, phone numbers, companies, or products beyond the life of this book.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Galloway, Joseph L., author. | Wolf, Marvin J., author.

Title: They were soldiers : the sacrifices and contributions of our Vietnam veterans / Joseph L. Galloway and Marvin J. Wolf.

Description: Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: Joseph Galloway and coauthor Marvin Wolf bring to life the inspirational stories of Vietnam veterans who returned home from the lost war to enrich Americas present and future-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019036793 (print) | LCCN 2019036794 (ebook) | ISBN 9781400208807 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781400208814 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Veterans--United States--Biography. Veterans--United States--Biography.

Classification: LCC DS559.73.U6 G35 2020 (print) | LCC DS559.73.U6 (ebook) | DDC 959.704/34092273--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019036793

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019036794

Epub Edition March 2020 9781400208814

Printed in the United States of America

20 21 22 23 24 LSC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

With great respect and admiration, the authors dedicate this book to the memory of a great soldier and a true American hero, Cyril R. Rick Rescorla. Decorated for valor in the Ia Drang valley battles in Vietnam, Rescorla became a hero again on September 11, 2001, when he saved the lives of some twenty-seven hundred people in the World Trade Centers South Tower. After shepherding those individuals to safety down forty-four flights of stairs, Rick Rescorla went back up those stairs with firefighters to look for stragglers and perished with them in the collapse of the building.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man

lay down his life for his friends.

JOHN 15:13 KJV

Veteran Reflections at the Wall

Remains of casualties were sent back home;

Their names now in Optima typeface in granite.

The whys and wherefores of war end in tomes

While inscribed in this black wall, mirrored and mammoth,

Tapered head to foot and full:

58,000 who signed up or were summoned.

For the vets who come here theres never a lull

In remembrance of Nam nor their shabby homecoming.

Faces lined with living through generations

Sons turning into fathers; the American dream.

Though others still wounded seek compensation

Denied the proverbial peaches and cream.

Those who forget history... we know the rest

Sloughing through rice paddies they passed that test.

RON VAZZANO

CONTENTS

T he Vietnam War came up on my radar in early 1963 through the dispatches of David Halberstam of the New York Times