A terrific novel regarding the exploits and heroics of the men of the 503. The book covered both their history in Ww2 and then again in Vietnam. The story contains great first hand accounts and descriptions of the action this unit saw during the two wars. The hardships and sacrifices they endured during their service truly reflect the heroes they were. A great novel, well worth reading!

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The book covers the third battalion 506th Airborne division, US Army from its re-activation, training and then deployment to Vietnam in 1968.
The book covers all of the major combat operations by the 3/506 during 1968, covering the operations in a high level manner rather than in detail, giving more of a third person feel as opposed to feeling as though you are there with them.
The major flaw in this book is the volume of names, there are far too many and they are referred to in various ways, such as forename, surname, nickname and then a mix of all three. This leads to a very confusing read and not knowing who anyone really is! There is also an over use of the inverted commas too which gets very irritating,
Whilst a good book detailing the unit and its combat operations in 1968, the book only covers that period, not the whole war or full history, coupled with a mind numbing amount of names makes this book a difficult read.

I’ve never read anything like this before. History isn’t my typical casual read. And truly, this wasn’t a casual read. It gripped my heart and struck through to my soul.

As a daughter of a Vietnam refugee and the wife of a soldier, this book felt far more personal than I could have anticipated. Multiple times, I found myself in tears over the devastation of battle after battle.

The one thing that makes this book so incredible is way the author humanizes the soldiers of the 3/506. In an age where we are truly so removed from the reality of war, we need the reminder of how real these stories are and how horrific the war really was. In these pages, we hear in detail how so many soldiers gave their lives, and we are called to remember—not to shield ourselves from the grim reality of war.

This book is not for the faint of heart. There are descriptions of injury and death that are so vivid… But without the shock of the very real violence that occurred during the Vietnam War, we can’t fully grasp what they experienced, and it makes it easy to dehumanize these men and remove ourselves from the idea of war.

This book was a sort of wake up call for me to dig into the less palatable parts of my own heritage. Even if it’s uncomfortable, it’s important. For my father’s sake, as well as for the sake of every soldier who shed blood on Vietnamese soil.

The only thing in this book that I didn’t not like was the interchange of first names, last names, and nicknames/call signs. It was hard to keep track of who was at the center of the action in each battle. But I don’t think that should keep anyone from picking up a copy of this book. This is a story that needs to be told.