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

Description

Across the nation in the spring of 1966, farm boys from the Midwest, surfers from California and city-slickers from Cleveland opened their mail to find greetings from Uncle Sam. Some of these men, optimistic and looking to serve their country, joined Charlie Company and trained for service. They deployed together, experiencing the camaraderie, fear, smell, pain, violence and senseless deaths. And through it all they wrote letters back and forth with the loved ones they'd left behind. Back at home, the families of Charlie Company faced fear, loneliness and uncertainty. As the war came to a close, everyone had irrevocably changed. Some families strove to set the war aside, while others wrestled with darkness as wives stood by their husbands through homelessness, alcoholism, and physical abuse. Some couldn't stand the pain and left the loves of their lives forever. Some reclaimed their loved ones from the brink of oblivion. Some had only memories to cherish. An emotionally raw and visceral journey through the tragedies, sorrows and triumphs of the Vietnam War and its aftermath, The Boys of '67 brings the experiences of the soldiers and families of Charlie Company vividly to life.

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 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 the award-winning Vietnam's Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN (New York University) and The Boys of '67 (Osprey) which was the basis for the Emmy-nominated National Geographic Channel Documentary Brothers in War. Erik Hendrix was raised on military bases while fed a steady diet of B-movies, science fiction, and comic books. He has become a mad-scientist creator and world-builder through his writing. His curiosity for history was sparked at a young age by his father, a retired Marine and Vietnam Vet, whose passion for genealogy extends back decades. Erik's study of history continued into college, when he took countless extra courses 'for fun', leading into his professional writing career, which include co-writing the graphic novel D-Day: Storming Fortress Europe for Osprey Publishing.

"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 "The Boys of 67 is an exceptionally well researched and well told story of an exceptional US Army infantry company in Vietnam. 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 "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 "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 storyteller and meticulous historian. 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 "The Boys of '67 follows 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 emotionally compelling as it is intellectually penetrating, impossible to read with a detached mind or dry eyes." --Dennis Showalter, author of Hitler's Panzers "In the final analysis, this book is a superb story of a US Army company in combat... The Boys of '67 is simply a story about war, the things men do in war and the things war does to them. The saga of the American soldier remains an important story that deserves to be told. Readers are in Wiest's debt for making Charlie Company's story accessible to the American public." --Col. Cole C. Kingseed, USA Ret. "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 "...this book is a superb story of a US Army company in combat ... The Boys of '67 is simply a story about war, the things men do in war and the things war does to them. The saga of the American soldier remains an imoprtant story that deserves to be told. Readers are in Wiest's debt for making Charlie Company's story accessible to the American public." --ARMY Magazine (May 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) "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) "This book is a superb story of a U.S. Army company in combat. As with Marine Lt. Phil Caputo's memoir, A Rumor of War, The Boys of '67 is simply a story about war, the things men do in war and the things war does to them. The saga of the American soldier remains an important story that deserves to be told. Readers are in Wiest's dept for making Charlie Company's story accessible to the American Public." --COL Cole C. Kingseed, Army Magazine "I recommend this book to any person who served, or who knows someone that did serve in Viet Nam, or to anyone who wants to know what it is like to be in a combat zone during a firefight in the Viet Nam war. This book is not for the feint of heart, as it contains some rather graphic descriptions of wounds and casualties, and is heart-wrenching in its story that will affect the young and the old." --Richard Mataka, www.mataka.org (June 2013) "...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) "...a powerful Vietnam testimony that's a 'must' for any military collection!" --James A. Cox, The Midwest Book Review