In This Series Ghost Tracks What Was It Like In Vietnam? Honest Answers From Those Who Were There Handbook for Forces in Vietnam What Happened to American Prisoners of War in Korea What was it Like in the Korean War? What Happened in Desert Storm? Hidden Casualties: Battles on the Home Front When Duty Called: Even Grandma Had to Go

Wartime Experiences

Films and books about Vietnam and other wars tend to be filled with language that make them impossible to give to our children. These books answer a lot of questions about what it was like to fight in Vietnam, Korea and the first Gulf War, from the veterans themselves, and without unacceptable language. These are important accounts from those who were there.

The Handbook is a reprint of that given in 1966 to all US personnel going to Vietnam.

Recommend this series to a friend or colleague

Ghost Tracks

In 1968 Mike Finn was a graduate student in physics who was drafted and sent with the Fourth Infantry Division to the Central Highlands of Vietnam. This book is a collection of flashbacks, which he has put in historical context and on which he has reflected for thirty years.

It offers vivid insight into what it was like to be there—the confusion and pain, the comradeship and fear, the beauty of the country, the characters of those he met and the sheer evil that is war. It is also a testimony to the men who knew the cause for which they fought was lost, who were largely abandoned to their fate, and yet most of whom comported themselves, in Finn’s words: “…with grace, dignity, valor and distinction."

Finn was first sent as a rifleman. He was later assigned to the Public Information Office and had the opportunity to travel to different units and view the operation on a wider front. After the American withdrawal he experienced with other veterans the public reaction: “So this is how it is to be.. first we are sent to die for other people’s mistakes, and then, when we return, we become the scapegoats for other people’s guilt.

It is a stunning, thoughtful and humane account.

Mike Finn is now a Professor of Physics at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia.

What Was It Like In Vietnam? Honest Answers From Those Who Were There

Honest Answers From Those Who Were There

Voted Best Book on Vietnam Veterans by the American Veteran Service!

Recommended by Stars and Stripes Magazine

The War in Vietnam is ancient history to high school students who were born 15 years after the United States withdrew. What Was It Like In Vietnam presents the accounts of people who fought there so students can have some insight into the experience.

Handbook for Forces in Vietnam

An exact reprint of the 1966 Handbook given to all United States Forces going to Vietnam.

This is a very revealing document of what the Pentagon knew and what the military understood as the United States sent tens of thousands of its young men to fight in Vietnam. It contains discussions of Vietnamese strategy, diagrams of traps and tunnels, pictures of equipment, and lengthy discussions of what our forces should do in each situation to protect themselves.

What Happened to American Prisoners of War in Korea

When the American prisoners came home after the truce that ended the Korean War, there were a lot of nasty rumors about how our men did not do so well, how they collaborated with the enemy, how they dishonored themselves, how they did not have the discipline of the Turkish prisoners, how no American soldiers ever before had cracked the way our men did in Korea. The Pentagon made the men sign Circular 131 which prohibited them from speaking or writing about their experiences as prisoners in Korea. So the rumors persisted; the truth never came to light.

Now, here laid out in chronological arrangement is the full story as told by the survivors of the horror our men experienced as prisoners of war in Korea: the thousands murdered after capture, the deliberate torture, the privations, the lies, the propaganda, the indoctrination, protests, harassment and escape attempts, liberation, homecoming, a listing of the prisoners, the roll of those still missing, and a list of those known to have died in captivity.

A riveting book!

What was it Like in the Korean War?

A companion book to What Happened to American Prisoners of War in Korea; this volume focuses on the experiences of our soldiers who were not taken prisoner.

What Happened in Desert Storm?

An examination of the first Gulf War with a chronology and an examination of many of the issues involved, together with the personal stories of many of the men and women who served in Desert Storm.

Hidden Casualties: Battles on the Home Front

This the true account of single parent, Sergeant Sara Raye. Her story begins as the unappreciated, youngest daughter of critical parents who always expected her to fail. Supporting her three young children on her own as a nurse was difficult enough. With deployment to war as a member of the Reserves, she had expected her family to help her.

When she returned injured from service in Operation Desert Storm in the Gulf War 1991 she discovered that her ex-husband had stolen custody of her three children. Citing violation of the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act, she goes to war using public appeal, orders from Washington, and an unprecedented National Guard JAG officer's appearance in Domestic Court.

When Duty Called: Even Grandma Had to Go

A 47 year-old Catholic nurse, wife, mother and grandmother from Ohio joined the Army Reserves in 1990 to obtain an advanced degree. Only a few months later she and her fellow medics found themselves deployed to Saudia Arabia to serve in Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. This is her story. It is a story of questions and hardships, of emotional highs and lows and of the stress that war put on her religious faith.
The medics came from all walks of life and age groups. They were thrown together in the most inhospitable of conditions. They had to learn quickly how to create makeshift tented hospitals in the desert.

They were under constant threat of attack and had to function whilst wearing heavy, charcoal lined suits, boots, gas-masks and gloves to protect against chemical weapons. Showers were a rare luxury; exhaustion the most common condition. Patients were from both sides of the conflict, and language and cultural differences complicated the treatment of enemy prisoners.

Coming home and adjusting to life in Middle America again, was not easy. This book tells it how it was in the 1990s-an interesting and gripping story that will not be far removed from present day experiences in Iraq.