Book Review -Praying for Slack, A Marine Corps Tank Commander in Vietnam
January 30th 2008 07:05
Two different wars were fought in Vietnam, the jungle-and-booby-trap one down south, and the WWII-like one up on the DMZ. "I was one of a handful whose Vietnam tour was evenly split between the First and Third Marine Divisions, and saw, firsthand, the difference 170 miles could make during the wars bloodiest year." Corporal Robert Peavey was a tank commander in I Corps (Eye Corps) on the DMZ when LBJ ordered a bombing halt over the North. His compelling first-hand account chronicles operations just south of the Z, operations that most Vietnam War histories have completely ignored. Peavey offers detailed, understandable explanations of combat strategy, strengths and shortcomings of standard-issue armament, and inter-service rivalries. (net sourced)
After reading the title, you might be thinking 'Tanks in Vietnam?' as your mind recalls all the television footage and movies you have seen. Helicopters, grunts pounding the boonies and water sking from patrol boats but tanks?
I have always been fascinated by tanks so when I saw this book on special, I just had to pick it up. I enjoyed reading Roberts account of his time in Vietnam, I liked the fresh honest style of writing, the non heroic this is how it was style of writing. A glimpse into what it must have been like to have been a tanker in Nam. The endless bordem of night watches mixed with the terror that 'Mr Charles' was always watching you and your rountines. From the fun moments of larking around, to watching a Phantom fast mover being chased by a Sam 7 missile, to the horror of having enemy troops on the back of your tank.
Robert has captured it all in a very easy to read but informative book so if you like military history or just like a good read then check out this book.
kiwiauthor rating 8.5/10
And if you liked this book, then you could also try:
Review By Lance Cpl. Brandon M. Gale MARINE CORPS AIR STATION NEW RIVER, N.C.
"Dispatches," novelist Michael Herr's account of his time as a journalist in Vietnam from 1967-69, is a fast-paced, unsettling and darkly humorous look at the people he met and the strange things he witnessed during this unstable time in American history.
Herr's style of writing is frantic, jumping from one thought to another, sometimes within the same sentence. It takes time to get accustomed to, but it captures perfectly the frenzied atmosphere Herr experienced. The effect is like a flood of memories, each one connected in some abstract way, the links of a chain totaling a complete picture. He tells his story in the same way people write in their own personal journals.
The book begins in the middle of one of these random episodes. There is no setup, no introduction. The reader is dropped into the story without a compass and with no bearing; the feeling created is as though you entered a conversation after it had begun. Everything is already familiar and nothing gets an explanation.
Herr seems to be more interested in feelings and emotions than with questions and answers. The servicemembers and civilians he encounters do not question the political motives behind the war or other worldly affairs; they are simply trying to keep their bodies alive and minds intact.
Much of the book details the time he spent in Hue City shortly after the Tet Offensive in 1968 and the siege of the Marine base at Khe Sanh. He describes the sounds, smells and ever present danger that made Vietnam a harrowing experience.
In its review of the book, Time magazine said, some stories must be told; not because they will delight and instruct, but because they happened.
Herr's stream of conscience writing is perfectly suited to the hallucinatory nature of that terrible war, a war unlike any other our nation has fought in. He makes sense of what seems to be senseless. Through his honest observations, he shows us what war is like at its lowest levels and how it affects the people who fight it.
"Dispatches" was published in 1977 and was called the best book to have been written about the Vietnam War by The New York Times. Elements for the films Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket were pulled directly from the book.
It is a tough book to read, full of doom and paranoia, but certainly well worth the effort.
(net sourced)
And
This straight-from-the-shoulder account tells the electrifying truth about the helicopter war in Vietnam. This is Robert Mason's astounding personal story of men at war. A veteran of more than one thousand combat missions, Mason gives staggering descriptions that cut to the heart of the combat experience: the fear and belligerence, the quiet insights and raging madness, the lasting friendships and sudden death—the extreme emotions of a “chickenhawk” in constant danger. (net sourced)
I read both these books years ago and still have them on the bookshelf, so I haven't done a fresh review but both of these are well worth reading also.
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