Air Cav

Air Cav
Author: J. D. Coleman
Publisher: Turner
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781596528178

Air Cav: History of the 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam 1965-1969 is the story of the small, close world of fighting men in action. This volume can be many things to many people a book of memories, a souvenir, a pictorial essay on airmobility, or simply a story of gallant men at war. It can be many things, but one thing it is not, nor does it pretend to be a complete history of the 1st Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam. The task and burden of history must lie with the objectivity of future generations, far removed from current pressures and restraints. It is true, of course, that much research for this book has been done from available official records, the ultimate source of written history. But even more has been drawn from the vivid recollections of the Cavalrymen who fought, tasted the brassy bile of fear, shared the fierce exultation of victory, or were drenched in the dark despair of death. This volume contains the memoirs of a fighting team the FIRST TEAM. It is a memory ""

The American Cavalry in Vietnam

The American Cavalry in Vietnam
Author: Jacques-François de Chaunac
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2003
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781563118906

Colonel Lyman C. Duryea (Retired) is a West Point graduate and former Commander of "C" Company of the 2d Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam in 1966. He served a second Vietnam tour as an advisor. In addition to various stateside assignments he served in Germany, France, the Congo, Panama, Haiti, and El Salvador. He is a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College and the Army War College. He holds Masters Degrees in Military Art and Science from the USAC & GSC, and French from Middlebury College. He has a Doctorate in Military History from Temple University. He has taught on the faculties of the Military Academy, the US Army School of the Americas, and the Army War College. His special interest is revolutionary theory. The action begins in October 1965 in the Vietnamese highlands. When the Green Berets and their allies, the Jarai montagnards are about to be submerged by North Vietnamese assaults, the Huey helicopters of the First Cav, as in Apocalypse Now, sow death in the communist ranks. From that moment on, there is no letup in the action. Ambushes, patrols, and large military operations follow one after the other. The author accompanies the infantrymen into the rice paddies, into the jungle, and on helicopters. He shares the life of the "sky soldiers." Documented using exclusively American sources, this book is also a work of military history. It traces the beginning of this unit, at once unique and autonomous, that has its own infantry, its own artillery, and its own airmobile logistical support system thanks to its five hundred helicopters. The First Cav, the most modern Division in the world created in Vietnam the Rambo myth. It is this same unit that, one hundred years earlier, was at the heart of the legends of the West fighting the Comanche and the Sioux. The Americans leave Vietnam in 1972 with the departure of the last brigade of the First Cav. In April of 1975 Saigon becomes Ho Chi Minh City. Who can say today who the real winner is? A planter in Vietnam in 1974 and 1975, Jacques-Francois de Chaunac lived through the end of the war in Long Thanh. With Francois d'Orcival he is the author of Marines a Khe Sanh (Presses de la Cite). Book jacket.

Air Cav

Air Cav
Author: J.D. Coleman
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2011-06-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 1596529385

Air Cav: History of the 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam 1965-1969 is the story of the small, close world of fighting men in action, told in their own words and supplemented with vivid photographs of the First Cavalry Division’s experience in the war and a history of the division. This volume can be many things to many people—a book of memories, a souvenir, a pictorial essay on airmobility, or simply a story of gallant men at war. It can be many things, but one thing it is not, nor does it pretend to be—a complete history of the 1st Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam. The task and burden of history must lie with the objectivity of future generations, far removed from current pressures and restraints. It is true, of course, that much research for this book has been done from available official records, the ultimate source of written history. But even more has been drawn from the vivid recollections of the Cavalrymen who fought, tasted the brassy bile of fear, shared the fierce exultation of victory, or were drenched in the dark despair of death. This volume contains the memoirs of a fighting team—the FIRST TEAM. It is a memory of combat; no doubt it is imperfect as all memory is, but nonetheless it is real for those who were there, for those who can fill in the inevitable gaps.

Anatomy of a Division

Anatomy of a Division
Author: Shelby L. Stanton
Publisher: Gower Publishing Company, Limited
Total Pages: 294
Release: 1987
Genre: History
ISBN:

Year of the Horse

Year of the Horse
Author: Kenneth D. Mertel
Publisher: Schiffer Pub Limited
Total Pages: 352
Release: 1997
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780764301384

This book is the day-by-day story of the Jumping Mustangs - 1st Ballalion, Airborne, 8th Cavalry, of the 1st Air Cavalry Division, written by the man who knows them best. 1st Air Cav Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Mertel. On 1 July 1965, at Fort Benning, Georgia, the 1st Air Cavalry Division was activated to employ newly developed techniques and tactics, providing the utmost in combat effectiveness and flexibility. After telling of the excitement at Benning over the formation of this revolutionary airmobile division, Colonel Mertel gives a vivid picture of the building of his own Jumping Mustang Battalion, the rigorous training of officers and men and, finally, the long voyage across the Pacific to Vietnam. Now the test. Would the new concept of airmobility, so painstakingly worked out stateside, produce the hoped-for results? The answer came quickly and dramatically in a rapid succession of search and destroy operations. Ia Drang . . . An Khe South . . . Plei Mei . . . the Cambodian border . . . Bong Son . . . Tarzan . . . In precipitous mountains, dense jungles, mud and water-filled rice paddles and expanses of view-obstructing elephant grass, the Jumping Mustangs sought out the enemy, engaging him in combat and stopping him in his tracks. Airmobility more than passed the test. Colonel Mertel pays tribute to the many acts of heroism of his men, who lived, worked and fought together in some of the world's most inhospitable conditions. He also writes movingly of those who never came back. In 1967 the President, at a White House ceremony, recognized the Division's success and valor by awarding it the Presidential Unit Citation for the action at Plei Mei. According to the Chines calendar, 1966 was the "Year of the Horse." It was the "Year of the Horse" for the Jumping Mustangs in Vietnam.

Search and Destroy

Search and Destroy
Author: Keith W. Nolan
Publisher: Quarto Publishing Group USA
Total Pages: 465
Release: 2010-07-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 1610600754

Using firsthand accounts from Vietnam soldiers, this book “tells it like it is, warts and all . . . [an] honest account of a cavalry squadron’s experience” (Military Review). The 1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, of the 1st Armored Division deployed to Vietnam from Fort Hood, Texas, in August 1967. Search and Destroy covers the 1/1’s harrowing first year and a half of combat in the war’s toughest area of operations: I Corps. The book takes readers into the savage action at infamous places like Tam Ky, the Que Son Valley, the Pineapple Forest, Hill 34, and Cigar Island, chronicling General Westmoreland’s search-and-destroy war of attrition against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army. Exploring the gray areas of guerrilla war, military historian Keith Nolan details moments of great compassion toward the Vietnamese, but also eruptions of My Lai-like violence, the grimmer aspects of the 1/1’s successes. Search and Destroy is a rare account of an exemplary fighting force in action, a dramatic close-up look at the Vietnam War. “Nolan’s research, his comprehension of the political as well as the military actions, his careful concern for those who were there, and, most of all, his writing, are superb.” —Stephen Ambrose

Lost Battalion of Tet

Lost Battalion of Tet
Author: Charles A Krohn
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2013-05-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1612512070

Published to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Tet Offensive, this new paperback edition brings back into print a book that became an essential source for a 2006 study of the battle by the U.S. Army s Center of Military History. It takes a critical look at what went wrong in early 1968 during one of the first engagements of Tet, when a U.S. infantry battalion was ordered to attack a large North Vietnamese force near Hue City without air or artillery support. The tragic military foul-up resulted in over 60 percent casualties for the 2d Battalion, 12th Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, when the soldiers were surrounded by the enemy and began running out of ammunition. The bold decision by battalion commander Lt. Col. Richard Sweet to break out with his remaining soldiers under cover of darkness saved this encirclement from being a total disaster. Author Charles Krohn, the unit s intelligence officer at the time, provides a much-needed analysis of what took place and fills his account with details that have been confirmed as factual by other survivors. Krohn examines the battalion s involvement in two other major attacks for lessons learned when vital systems break down lessons, he says, that are timeless and applicable anywhere. This book is published in cooperation with the Association of the United States Army.

The 1st Cav in Vietnam

The 1st Cav in Vietnam
Author: Shelby L. Stanton
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1999
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780891416869

They were the First Team, the most innovative development in warfare since the introduction of massed tank formations in World War II.

Heroes

Heroes
Author: Mike Larson
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2008-09
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0595525210

Even today, my thoughts of Vietnam are positive. I have incredibly fond memories of spending one year in that theater with some incredible people. My feelings about the Vietnam War mesh exactly with what Michael Norman wrote in his book These Good Men: Friendships Forged From War-even though Norman's heroes served in the U.S. Marine Corps and mine served in the First Air Cav. In recalling his tour in Vietnam, Norman wrote: "I did not pick these men. They were delivered by fate and the U.S. Marine Corps. But I know them in a way I know no other men. I have never since given anyone such trust. They were willing to guard something more precious than my life. They would have carried my reputation, the memory of me. It was part of the bargain we all made, the reason we were so willing to die for one another."