The Boys of '67: Charlie Company's War in Vietnam

The Boys of '67: Charlie Company's War in Vietnam

by Andrew Wiest
The Boys of '67: Charlie Company's War in Vietnam

The Boys of '67: Charlie Company's War in Vietnam

by Andrew Wiest

eBook

$10.99  $14.40 Save 24% Current price is $10.99, Original price is $14.4. You Save 24%.

Available on Compatible NOOK Devices and the free NOOK Apps.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers

LEND ME® See Details

Overview

Following on from the stunning success of the novel Matterhorn as well as Osprey's own Tonight We Die as Men, this book follows the trials and tribulations of a group of Vietnam draftees from basic training to the rice paddies of Vietnam.

In the spring of 1966 the Vietnam War was intensifying, driven by the US military build up, under which the 9th Infantry Division was reactivated. Charlie Company was part of the 9th and representative of the melting pot of America. But, unlike the vast majority of other companies in the US Army, the men of Charlie Company were a close-knit family. They joined up together, trained together, and were deployed together. This is their story.

From the joker who roller-skated into the Company First Sergeant's office wearing a dress, to the nerdy guy with two left feet who would rather be off somewhere inventing computers, and the everyman who just wanted to keep his head down and get through un-noticed and preferably unscathed. Written by leading Vietnam expert Dr Andrew Wiest, The Boys of '67 tells the unvarnished truth about the war in Vietnam, recounting the fear of death and the horrors of battle through the recollections of the young men themselves.

America doesn't know their names or their story, the story of the boys of Charlie, young draftees who had done everything that their nation had asked of them and received so little in return – lost faces and silent voices of a distant war.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781780968940
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date: 09/20/2012
Series: General Military
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 376
Sales rank: 464,045
File size: 11 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Dr Andrew Wiest is Professor of History at the University of Southern Mississippi and is also the founding director of the Center for the Study of War and Society. After attending the University of Southern Mississippi for his undergraduate and masters degrees, Dr Wiest went on to receive his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Chicago in 1990. Specializing in the study of World War I and Vietnam, he has served as a Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst and as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Warfighting Strategy in the United States Air Force Air War College. Since 1992 Dr Wiest has been active in international education, developing the award-winning Vietnam Study Abroad Program.

A widely published author, Wiest's titles include Vietnam's Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN (New York University), which won the Society for Military History's Distinguished Book Award; America and the Vietnam War (Routledge); Rolling Thunder in a Gentle Land (Osprey); and Passchendaele and the Royal Navy (Greenwood Press). Additionally Dr Wiest has appeared in and consulted on several historical documentaries for the History Channel, Granada Television, PBS, the BBC, and for Lucasfilm. Wiest lives in Hattiesburg with his wife Jill and their three children Abigail, Luke and Wyatt.
Dr Andrew Wiest is University Distinguished Professor of History and the founding director of the Dale Center for the Study of War&History at the University of Southern Mississippi. Specializing in the study of World War I and Vietnam, he has served as a Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst and as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Warfighting Strategy in the United States Air Force Air War College. Since 1992 Dr Wiest has been active in international education, developing the award-winning Vietnam Study Abroad Program.

Wiest's titles include Vietnam's Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN (New York University), which won the Society for Military History's Distinguished Book Award, Rolling Thunder in a Gentle Land (Osprey), and The Boys of '67 (Osprey), which was the basis for the Emmy nominated National Geographic Channel Documentary Brothers in War. He lives in Hattiesburg, Mississippi with his wife Jill and their three children Abigail, Luke, and Wyatt.

Table of Contents

Preface: Meeting Charlie
Introduction: The Need for Charlie
Prelude: Losing the Best We Had


Chapter 1: Who Was Charlie?
Chapter 2: Training
Chapter 3: To Vietnam and into the Rung Sat
Chapter 4: Into Battle
Chapter 5: The Day Everything Changed
Chapter 6: The Steady Drumbeat of War
Chapter 7: Charlie Transformed, Battlefield Coda, and the Freedom Bird
Chapter 8: Home From War

Glossary
The Men of Charlie Company
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Dedication
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Thoughtful and richly detailed, this outstanding account of the early phase of the War in Vietnam takes us into the forbidding Mekong River Delta with the men of Charlie Company, to witness their harrowing firefights and their fleeting victories, to appreciate the singular combat experience haunting their dreams and those of their country.”
—Hugh Ambrose, Author of The Pacific
 
“A powerful account of conflict, Andy Wiest’s The Boys of ’67 provides what is all-too-rare, a ‘face of battle’ account that is at once scholarly and well-written, perceptive and engaging.”
—Jeremy Black, author of War since 1945
 
“The Boys of 67 is an exceptionally well researched and well told story of an exceptional US Army infantry company in Vietnam. Charlie Company trained together, fought together, and bled together.  Andrew Wiest sheds light and understanding on the human and psychological dimension of war and the aftermath of war.  It is a story of courage, comradeship, tribulation, suffering, and perseverance.”
—Brigadier General H. R. McMaster, author of Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam
 
“The Boys of'67  folllows a single infantry company in a single year of the Vietnam War . It ia a story of men who routinely put their lives into each others' hands. It is a story of fear and heroism; of  waste, confusion, boredom—and their impact on those who return home.  Wiest's empathy and perception make the book as emotioally compelling as it is intellectually  penetrating, impossible to read with a detached mind or dry eyes.”
—Dennis Showalter, author of Hitler’s Panzers: The Lightning Attacks that Revolutionized Warfare
 
“This is a story of men at war in the tradition of A Band of Brothers. It is a remarkable book written by a master story teller and meticulous historian.  Professor Wiest very effectively demonstrates in extremely personal terms the impact of the war, both good and bad, on the soldiers who did the fighting, while also very eloquently addressing the cost of the war on those left behind at home.  I cannot recommend it strongly enough, particularly for fellow Vietnam veterans and their families, military historians, and anyone interested in what American soldiers went through in the Vietnam War.”
—James H. Willbanks, PhD, is a Vietnam veteran and author of Abandoning Vietnam and The Battle of An Loc

"Wiest’s use of personal interviews and letters home put a personal touch on the book. I felt a growing sense of attachment to the men of Charlie Company as the book progressed, felt a sense of their heartache when their brothers died, and I sympathized for many of them who struggled with PTSD following the war. Wiest addresses the ugliness and humanity of war, but also the loving bonds that are created between men who experience war together and the indelible marks it leaves on their minds."
—Abigail Pfeiffer, Armchair General

"...Wiest concentrates on the human side of the conflict ... [he] spent three years interviewing sixty-one officers and men of Charlie Company, 4th Battalion, 47th Infantry. He tells their stories well and emphatically..."
—Marc Leepson, Vietnam Veterans of America (September/October 2012)

"I have been forever fascinated with the Vietnam War — most especially with the politics and behind-the-scene machinations behind America's involvement, but also with the growth and outright explosion of US opposition to the war, and the aftermath, as the soldiers came home, or did not. But what really gets to me are the compelling stories of the people who were actually there. The Boys of '67 briefly but powerfully examines the lives of a group of men from Charlie Company in the US Army's 9th Infantry Division — from the time they received their greetings from Uncle Sam through their individual returns home and beyond. It is a fine addition to the already-existing collection of personal histories of the war, focusing largely on the special bonds forged between these former strangers turned family throughout their year in Vietnam."
—Nancy Oakes, www.2010theyearinbooks.com

"This is a compelling and intimate look at one unit's wartime experience, filled with loss, excitement, humor, and pain that readers of wartime memoirs will especially want to share."
Library Journal (October 15, 2012)

"This intimate, hardback book is illustrated with 25 color and 10 black and white illustrations. Its publication coincides with the 45th anniversary of Charlie Company’s tour of duty in Vietnam. The Boys of ’67 delivers the unvarnished truth about the men’s experiences from the chaos of combat to the challenges they have faced reintegrating into society."
Toy Soldier & Model Figure (January 2013)

"Vietnam has been the subject of countless books: this is one of the best. Exhaustively researched and expertly written, it allows us a glimpse of the intense bonds of comradeship forged by soldiers in the white heat of combat."
—Saul David, BBC History Magazine (January 2013)

"...a powerful Vietnam testimony that's a 'must' for any military collection!"
- James A. Cox, The Midwest Book Review

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews