Death Valley_ The Summer Offensive, I Corps, August 1969 - Keith Nolan [0]
Copyright © 1987 by Keith William Nolan
Published by Presidio Press
505 B San Marin Drive, Suite 300
Novato, CA 94945-1340
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. Inquiries should be addressed to Presidio Press, 505 B San Marin Drive, Suite 300, Novato, CA 94945-1340.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nolan, Keith William, 1964–
Death Valley.
Bibliography: this page.
1. Vietnamese Conflict, 1961–1975—Campaigns—Vietnam—Hiep Duc Valley. 2. Vietnamese Conflict, 1961–1975—Regimental histories—United States. 3. United States. Marine Corps. Marines, 7th—History. 4. United States. Army. Infantry Brigade. 196th—History. 5. Hiep Duc Valley (Vietnam)—History. I. Title.
DS557.8.H54N65 1987 959.704’342 86-30478
eISBN: 978-0-307-80205-7
v3.1
To Kelly
Sometime after August of 69, a grunt walked through the American Division Headquarters compound in Chu Lai. He wore no helmet now that he was in from the bush, and his hair was dirty and uncombed. He had unauthorized sideburns and a handlebar mustache. He held his M16 rifle over his shoulder like a tramp stick, and his faded, grimy fatigue shirt hung open. A green sweat towel was draped around his neck, and his trouser cuffs were rolled up, exposing muddy and cracked jungle boots. A starched major approached and questioned his unmilitary appearance. He smiled, “The war’s over. We’ve got to start acting like garrison soldiers now.” The young grunt pulled a grubby envelope from his pocket. He shook it at the major. “What do you mean the war’s over? Three months ago, seven of us were at LZ Baldy and now five are dead!” But the major was still smiling, “Well, let’s say it’s slowed down quite a bit.”
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface
PART THE GRUNTS
1. You Could Feel the Ghosts
3. The Arizona
3. Contact
4. What Marines Do Best
5. Hounds Too Fast on the Hunt
PART GIMLETS AND POLAR BEARS
6. Landing Zone West
7. Ambush
8. Hot CA into AK Valley
9. Body Bags
10. I am Sorry, Sir, But My Men Refused to Go
PART DEATH VALLEY
11. Surrounded
12. Running
13. Enter the Marines
14. Counterattack
15. The Lost Battalion
16. Sitting Ducks
17. Buzz–Saw
18. Realignment
19. And, Finally, Rendezvous
20. Finish
21. Continuum
Bibliography
Preface
Though one of my first books, and that does not imply great things, Death Valley, originally published in 1987, was, nevertheless, the best of my early campaign histories. I think the British magazine Military Illustrated got it right when it observed in its review of Death Valley that the author “is no English stylist,” but that “the relentless accumulation of small-scale detail has a numbingly powerful effect.”
This is a book about war at the grunt level, and another reviewer was good enough to remark that the story is “told straight.”
In telling it straight, I had to acknowledge some depressing realities. There were many good soldiers in the 7th Marines and the 196th Infantry Brigade of the Americal Division, the units described in Death Valley. During the 1969 Summer Offensive, the campaign recounted here, they fought the good fight against the tough, aggressive regulars of the North Vietnamese Army. However, individual heroism was not enough. Morale as a whole was poor, even in some of the Marine units, and to quote the Brits again, the Americal Division troops in particular were mostly “unwilling conscripts, badly trained, badly led, badly motivated … and therefore, consistently outfought by an enemy who lacked anything approaching the Americans’ firepower but had ten times their determination.”
The summer of ’69 was a terrible time to be a grunt in the shimmering-hot rice paddies of the Arizona Territory, or the Hiep Duc and Song Chang Valleys of Quang Tin Province, the three locales where the combat action of Death