What Are They Going To Do, Send Me To Vietnam?
Publisher: Wasteland Press
Published: December 12, 2005
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 188
ISBN-13: 9781933265940
Subjects: American history: Vietnam War; Biography: general; General; Biography & Autobiography; History - Military / War; Biography/Autobiography; USA; Vietnam; Military - Vietnam War; Biography & Autobiography / General; History-Military - Vietnam War
First sentence: It was the summer of 1968 and I was a young, twenty-two year old buck sergeant being sent to Vietnam-a strange, faraway place that few if any knew much about.
Description: Written by Bernie Weisz Vietnam Historian January 8th, 2010 Pembroke Pines, Florida USA E Mail address: BernWei1@aol.com 
Title of Review: "The Way the Vietnam War Really Was! An Exceptionally Frank Memoir!  I have read literally hundreds of memoirs written about combatant's experiences in Vietnam. Usually, I have found that the most accurate ones were written prior to 1980-with the war still fresh in that particular veteran's mind. However, Jack Stoddard's "What Are They Going To Do, Send Me to Vietnam" will not only give the reader the sights, smells and sounds of Vietnam War, but the feelings that Stoddard suppressed for close to thirty years, i.e. themes of "survivor's guilt", combat tactics, "P.T.S.D." and much more! Stoddard never intended to write this book. In fact, he went out of his way not to discuss his experiences, his losses nor his nightmares with anyone. This book starts with Stoddard giving the reader only a "half-truth" as to why he changed his mind. Elucidating, he wrote in 2000: "I wrote this book because like a lot of other Vets, I couldn't tell my own sons about Vietnam, but I knew I must. There are thousands of other kids like mine, and parents out there who only want to know what their fathers or sons went through and why they still carry the burden of war with them today." Stoddard's reason is sound, as if the participants that were in Vietnam do not teach the next few generations, how are we to learn from our nation's mistakes? Keep in mind, the main theme of historical research is that history per se repeats itself; those that do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it! Stoddard's book is his personal stake in chronicling exactly what he saw, felt and experienced, without the passage of three decades dimming his capacity to recall. 


"What are they going to do, send me to Vietnam" is an important, catch all phrase that was unique to the Vietnam Veteran. For Stoddard, the phrase had a double meaning, actually serving as a motivating factor for him to finish this memoir to completion. The last four years of the Vietnam War witnessed America committed to extracting itself from the fray with the motto "Peace with Honor." Nevertheless, Stoddard and everyone who served with him knew this was all for nothing; no one wanted to be the last to die in an abandoned cause. Stoddard's title also suggested a certain irreverence to authority combined with a dogged determination to get on with the task no matter how dangerous or difficult it may have been. It captured in a phrase the spirit and the common bond shared by soldiers in Vietnam. Tom White was the Brigadier General of the Blackhorse Regiment and Stoddard's platoon leader in Vietnam. White never wrote his memoirs, insisting he can't bring himself to do it. However he understood why Stoddard would never of accomplished this without his wife's prodding, as he knows the pain of the past can be incapacitating. Found throughout the book as a sarcastic comeback to an unpopular order or request by an incompetent superior of Stoddard's, it is explained in the forward by White as such: "We were young men who, at the time, never concerned ourselves with the grand strategy or the politics or whether the war was right or wrong. The war was there and we were there and we were going to accomplish our mission to the best of our ability because that was the best way to stay alive. We were proud of our unit, valued our friendships, and did the best we could to care for our buddies. That is why the losses were so personal and the hurt has continued for so long." This is a critical assertion and learning tool for the parents, children and friends of any Vietnam Veteran alive today. Of the 2,709,918 Americans who served in Vietnam, less than 850,000 are estimated to be alive today, with the youngest American Vietnam veteran's age approximated to be about 54 years old. 


To ward off false expectations, Stoddard at the outset explained the contents of this book: "This book offers no political opinions nor is it judgmental of Vietnam or the war. Rather, it is a collection of true stories about the exciting, humorous, and sometimes frightening adventures I experienced during my 2 1/2 years of combat. This book tells it like it really was, at least for me." Jack's wife, Sue, had an active role as well. With widely circulating false stereotypical impressions of Vietnam Vets portraying them as "baby killing, homicidal drug addicts with M-16's, Sue urged he husband to set the record straight. Agreeing, Stoddard wrote: "I couldn't help but think of the past and how my wife encouraged me to write this book about the way Vietnam really was. About good men doing an impossible job as best they could. Not killers, but boys who became men long before their time-some who came home, and some who didn't." As mentioned, in all of the memoirs I have read, there are certain cliche's that came out of Vietnam, such as "364 days and a wake-up", "Going back to the World", "Going home on that Freedom Bird", but my all time favorite was the title of this book. Another term that originated in the Vietnam War was the word "fragging." This referred to the act of attacking a superior officer in one's chain of command with intentions of killing him, essentially the assassinating an unpopular officer in one's own fighting unit. Because the killing was precipitated by a fragmentation grenade, the term was a natural choice. The most common incentive for selecting a fragmentation grenade was so that the executioner assured himself anonymity, thus avoiding any punishing consequences. A fragmentation grenade assured this.   
If a battle was occurring, the soldier could claim that the grenade landed too close to the person he "accidentally" killed, another member of the unit threw the grenade, or that an enemy soldier threw it back. If the killer threw it into an officer's hooch, the exploded fragmentation grenade couldn't be traced to anyone, as it was destroyed in the explosion, and the characteristics of the shrapnel untraceable to a specific grenade or soldier. The motivation to commit a fragging unilaterally involved the murdering a reckless commanding officer that was only concerned with the war's overall effort, incompetently obsessed with undertaking dangerous missions and winning medals regardless of how many men died under his guidance. After the January, 1968 "Tet Offensive," the war became increasingly more unpopular and as a consequence veterans became less enthused going into harm's way. Most units in the field desired commanding officers with similar sentiments of wanting to come home alive. If a commanding officer was incompetent, fragging him was considered a means to an end of self-preservation for all serving under him. Fragging might also occur if a commander freely took on dangerous or suicidal missions, especially if he was deemed to be seeking glory for himself. The motive of individual self-preservation was often obstructive to the goals of the overall war effort. Stoddard's title was also an attitude soldiers took when threatened with punitive consequences for not obeying commands. After the 1968 Tet Offensive, a rapid increase in incidents of "combat refusal" occurred, resulting in at least ten major mutinies and perhaps hundreds of minor ones, many unreported. Before deployment to Vietnam, there were barracks-full of guys in Camp Pendleton waiting their court-martials for refusing to fight. Feeling it wasn't "worth it," they queried, "What are they going to do, send me to Vietnam?" That year, there were 68 recorded combat refusals alone. In William J. Shkurti's book "Soldiering On in a Dying War: The True Story of the Firebase Pace Incidents and the Vietnam Drawdown," the incidents of October 10-11, 1971 is discussed. Firebase Pace was one of several forward area artillery firebases built with taxpayers' money within firing range of the Cambodian border. 


The NVA had built an extensive underground bunker complex inside the treeline along the Cambodian border, on Pace's northeastern side. From these bunkers, NVA gunners would quickly set up a mortar tube or rocket launcher, fire, and duck back into their tunnels. Within seconds the Americans would pour out machine-gun fire, followed by artillery and even air strikes; but by then the gunner would have jumped into his gopher hole and scurried through an underground tunnel, emerging about fifty meters away. All the artillery and air fire the soldiers poured on the NVA was useless. The battlefield technology developed at a cost of billions of dollars, such as electronically controlled B-52's, Spooky gunships and ground sensors were meaningless against a few men with a mortar that popped up at will, drop in a few rounds, and ducked back into the safety of their tunnel with virtual impunity. Six soldiers were ordered to go stumbling off into the darkness, amid the booby traps, with the intention of finding other soldiers to shoot at on a night ambush patrol. Upon refusing this suicidal order, they were threatened with court-martial. Their response was Stoddard's title: "What are you going to do, send us to Vietnam." In a show of solidarity, soldiers from the other company's platoons also refused. They also responded with the cliche. Incredibly, 65 out of 100 soldiers signed a statement addressed to Senator Edward Kennedy requesting his help if they were given a court-martial. Kennedy offered no help except to call for an "investigation," which never occurred. At times, entire units refused combat orders, citing the title of Stoddard's book as their standard comeback. Particularly after 1970 the patriotic pursuit of victory among most American ground units was severely lacking. Everyone just wanted to go home. 


Jack Stoddard was part of "The Blackhorse Regiment." This was the nickname for the 11th Cavalry, where it was assigned in Vietnam and Cambodia for 1,639 days, with it's troops earning 11 battle streamers. In fact, the 11th Armored Cavalry Regimental Commander was Col. George S. Patton III and the Air Cavalry Troop commander was Major John C. "Doc" Bahnson, who also wrote an excellent memoir called "American Warrior." Tom White explained his interpretation of Bahnson's title as such: "In choosing the title for this book, the author has picked the perfect expression to capture the essence of his text. First of all, that phrase suggests that this book is not a book about the grand strategy of the Vietnam War. Thank God! For those of us who fought in that war, we would agree unanimously that if there ever really was a strategy in Vietnam, it certainly was not grand."  Stoddard titled his book with a phrase that was instantly recognizable by every Vietnam veteran and repeated throughout the Army over a period a thousand times over. Stoddard summed up his rationale for authoring this book: "Every soldier who walks the earth has a story. This is mine, or at least the part of my life when I felt the most alive while at the same time being the closest to death. I was a 22 year old professional soldier who already had 5 years experience under his belt when I arrived in Vietnam in 1968. I developed everlasting bonds of friendship, trust, honor, and hope with my closest buddies who were also proud to be called soldiers. there were no Rambo's, dopers, or insane killers in my book; just a group of young soldiers, like myself, who were scared most of the time, but had too much pride to show it. We were too busy taking care of each other and just putting up with the daily crap that goes along with any war." When I read a memoir about the Vietnam War, I judge it's accuracy and historical usefulness by the subtle messages and nuances of the conflict that no history book will dare publish. In "What Are They Going to Do, Send Me to Vietnam", I was not disappointed. Stoddard takes the reader on his trips as a commander of his 50 ton M48 tank, called the "Double Duce" and you walk with him on patrol as a squad leader of the elite all volunteer "Aero Rifle Platoon" of Col. Patton's 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. 


Right in the first story, the reader gets a feel for the futility of this war. Stoddard felt isolated, not knowing a single of the 300 other souls on the commercial airliner bound for South Vietnam. Originating from Travis Air Force Base in California,, he sat there for 20 hours feeling trapped as his aerial war chariot made en route stops in both Hawaii and Guam. When first deplaning, Stoddard's reaction was classic: "By the time my feet hit the bottom of the ramp, I had learned my first lesson in Vietnam: There was no cool breeze. That hot sticky feeling that bothered me inside the plane surrounded me on the ground too. As soon as we deplaned, we were loaded on big blue Air Force buses with wire screens covering the windows to be taken to the 90th Replacement Battalion at Long Binh, about an hour from the air base. The young soldier sitting next to me smiled and asked the driver, "Why all the screens? To keep us from getting out?" The overworked driver replied matter-of-fact, "No, it's to keep the grenades from coming in". The soldier's smile quickly disappeared as he turned to me and asked, "He's kidding, right?" However, the U.S. game plan of "winning the hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people never worked, and the driver was not kidding. In fact, one of the major issues our troops faced was the farmer or mama san working legitimate jobs during the day, and changing into the enemy at night. Who was our ally and who was our foe? Could this confusion have contributed to what happened at My Lai 4? Many "friendly fire" incidents occurred during this war, in part attributable to this problem. In fact, "friendly fire" killed Chris Cordova, Stoddard's driver and good friend on the "Double Duce" four months after Stoddard DEROS'd back home (returned to the U.S.). The reader will feel Stoddard's remorse and survivor's guilt over Cordova's death. After his arrival in the summer of 1968, Stoddard was assigned to "M Company" near Xuan Loc, home of the "Blackhorse Regiment".  His first assessment of Vietnam was classic: "It was hard adjusting to the constant heat and humidity. Everything in the 'Nam seemed to sweat. The canvas covering our hooch was mildewed and the smell was overwhelming. It was just too hot to sleep. It was like being in a furnace. Even my lungs were burning." 


However, Stoddard also revealed a beauty to Vietnam rarely told by the history books. On his first Chinook flight over the terrain, he remarked: "Within a matter of minutes, we were flying over what appeared from the air to be a peaceful jungle. Being naive, I thought this was just too pretty a place for a war. The edges were a light green as new vegetation tried to reclaim the areas that had been cleared by local farmers for their rice paddies. Then the jungle took on a darker green as the younger trees mixed with the older taller trees forming, in effect, a double canopy jungle. Soon we flew over even darker sections of almost black terrain. Three layers of trees had formed together. At that point, the foliage became so thick it was almost impossible to see through it from the ground or air. I learned from one of the old-timers that this was called, logically, a triple canopy jungle. It looked so beautiful flying over that I couldn't wait to venture into my new surroundings."  Little did Stoddard know at the time, but what he was describing was the exact justification the U.S. Government used to spray "Agent Orange" or Dioxin-which was a cancer causing, environmentally poisoning defoliant used to deny the enemy this sanctuary that gave refuge to the N.V.A. and Viet Cong in hiding from our forces. After arriving "in country", Stoddard was assigned to a tank company that wouldn't have an officer until the next week. Getting a call to move out on a tank newly given to him, two occurrences happened to Stoddard that set the tone for the entire war. Despite being in the military for five years prior, in his first call into action, Stoddard remarked: "As we rolled out of the perimeter, all kinds of new thoughts and questions filled my mind. Were we going to a major battle? Back to base camp? I didn't have any ammunition. When or how would I load my rifle? What am I supposed to look for? I finally decided to just hold on and keep my mouth shut". So much for preparing our troops for combat! 


After a battle with the infamous "wait a minute vines" (they were the tentacles of giant prickly vines that attacked and tormented ground troops and tankers) Stoddard had to be medically evacuated to a rear aid station to have the tentacles removed from around his eyes. Stoddard made a comment that represented the "American fighting spirit" to prevail in this war as follows: "I remember thinking, how could anybody work all day in this unbearable climate?  It was only the middle of the afternoon and I was already soaked to the skin and physically drained by the heat. Just think, only 359 days to go!" In his story of "Guarding The Runway", Stoddard's tank platoon of "M" company was based at Xuan Loc. This was right after the Tet Offensive had began and both N.V.A. and V.C. units were infiltrating most of the cities. Stoddard's tank company was split in half, with 10 tanks going to Bien Hoa, the other 10, including Stoddard, going to protect Long Binh. After spotting and being ordered to destroy an enemy 51 caliber machine gun nest hidden in the bell tower of an old French Church, Stoddard described attacking the target as well as the resulting death of it's occupants. However, as a reflection of the U.S. pursuit of the war in general, Stoddard made a very interesting comment. He wrote: "Before we could move to our second target, word came down from higher command for us to get our tanks out of the city. Our tanks were destroying too many buildings maneuvering in the narrow side streets. We were doing more damage than the enemy". In reading this, I wonder how General William Westmoreland ever thought that he could see "light at the end of the tunnel". Since when did our tanks upon entering Germany in April, 1945, worry about damaging or destroying German architecture, certainly more sophisticated and antiquated then in Long Binh? 


In his story "What, Me Hurt?" Stoddard injured his hand trying to repair a thrown track on his tank. Accidentally getting his hand pinned and almost crushed, he once again had to be medically evacuated by helicopter. While he was being treated at a rear medical facility, three medevac choppers brought a load of dead and wounded soldiers in to be worked on, which Stoddard gruesomely witnessed. Finding out that his hand was only jammed, he was given pain pills, told he was okay and to report back to his company. His thoughts were recorded as such: "I felt better as I walked back to the orderly room. As a matter of fact, after what I just witnessed, it felt good to be alive. I sure never wanted to go back there ever again. Instead of going directly back to my company, I stopped off at the Non-commissioned Officers Club and had a beer. Sure, I wasn't supposed to be there (NCO clubs are only for officers, a rank Stoddard didn't possess), but what were they going to do, send me to Vietnam"? One would have to be in Vietnam to understand the following, which certainly indicated racial discord between black and white troops. This had to do with the practice of "dapping". For some reason, Stoddard never mentioned it was a racial thing, but in Cecil B. Curry's book "Long Binh Jail", it certainly was. Curry wrote as follows: "Black Power had become an issue that tore at the fabric of American society by 1967-1968. Clenched fist salutes, Afro hairstyles, and motto's such as "Black is beautiful" became symbols of solidarity among African Americans, and they sought to emphasize "black pride" among the people of their race. Social conflict raging at home soon made it's way across the Pacific to American military units assigned to Vietnam. Black troopers became "brother" to one another, whether they knew each other or not. Their shared color is what mattered. They sported the new Afro hairstyles and grew tiny beards on their lower lips in defiance of military regulations. They developed intricate hand movements to be used when meeting one another, a practice known as "dapping". They believed (sometimes correctly) that they were given the worst fatigue duties and the most dangerous patrol assignments". In discussing "dapping" and race relations, John Trotti in his book "Phantom Over Vietnam" had the following to say: "Another factor affecting unit morale and performance was the rise of the black-power movement in the armed forces. Though they had been in existence far longer, 1968 saw the beginnings of cohesive and effective black-power cells overseas." 

In terms of incompetence, in Stoddard's story "Harry and the Grenade", he had a new driver for his tank named Harry. Stoddard described him as such: "I really liked him despite the rumors that he smoked pot. I have to admit he did look a little strange with his non-regulation long hair, beaded peace symbol hung around his neck, and a driver's compartment he'd painted with an unauthorized Day-glo psychedelic paint." After "playing" with the pin to a grenade and dropping it on the floor as Harry was driving the tank, almost killing all 4 crew members, Stoddard was able to put the pin back into the grenade without incident. Next, pushing the tank hard and fast to catch up to the remaining column of tanks, the engine burned out. As the thick, black and orange smoke poured out of the rear engine grill, Stoddard's tank stalled out, and he wrote the following: "The 4 of us stood there in the street, bewildered, looking at our poor smoldering tank. I heard Harry tell Chopper, Stoddard's gunner, the following: "Far out, man. Really far out". I was so mad at Harry that for 2 cents I would have killed him." If that story wreaks of incompetence, Stoddard's next story is even better. After the tank was towed to a maintenance depot at Bien Hoa to have a complete engine wiring harness replaced, Standard incredulously wrote the following after the repairs were finished: "I walked into the hangar unexpectedly on the 6th day and caught the Sergeant off guard. I found the maintenance people pulling out the new harness! "What are you guys doing? Is something wrong?" I questioned. "We finished the job yesterday, but we're so bored we were going to do it again," he confessed. "You've got to be kidding, right?" I asked but he said no and if we didn't tell anyone, he'd have us on the road by late the next night. I agreed and headed to the club for a Tom Collins." There are so many amazing anecdotes in this book, I can't even mention even half. There is the incredible story of when Stoddard shot a canister round at an VC soldier who was rowing a wooden canoe in a free fire zone at night. He fired his 90 mm gun and blew the canoe in a million pieces,  killing all of the occupants.  Stoddard didn't realize an ARVN soldier had put his hammock up right next to the 90 mm's turret. When Stoddard fired, the concussion from the canister round blew out the ARVN soldier's eardrum. Then, there is the story of Frank Saracino, from Colorado, who was Stoddard's close friend and roommate. Stoddard was there when Saracino walked into an ambush, was shot in the head and killed instantly as a result. Stoddard must have found it difficult to write the following: "We found Frank lying in a ditch. It looked like the enemy had tried to take his boots off and his weapon was also missing. The 4 of us almost religiously carried Frank off the battlefield. He had been shot in the head by the 51-caliber machine gun. He never knew what hit him."  At the end of this book, Stoddard makes peace with the ghosts of the past in "Going to see Chris" and "Closing the Door for Frank" where he visited the deceased families of both Chris Cordova, killed by friendly fire 4 months after Stoddard left Vietnam for good, and Frank Saracino. 

Both stories are very touching, but the reader will pick up Stoddard's "survivor guilt" as he wrote that if he were in Vietnam, Stoddard could have called of the U.S. air strike that accidentally killed Cordova.  Certainly, Stoddard left out stories too difficult to tell. Many a soldier would easily have preferred to leave the past alone and not recount gruesome stories of death. An example of this is Bruce R. Lake and his book "1500 Feet Over Vietnam."  Lake waited 25 years to tell his story of being a Chinook H-46 pilot, and included the following painful recollection: "On trips we had to bring back many badly decayed bodies of Marines who had died in action. That's the first time I had to resort to using Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum. We used to keep a pack in the sleeve of our flight suit. You'd chew a couple of pieces and stick the moist gum on your upper lip just below your nose to help mask the odor. To this day when I taste or smell Juicy Fruit gum it reminds me of death. Even the sight of the bright yellow package makes me think about it. The troops on the ground always hated us to have to do this, but there were times when the odor was so strong that some pilots had the crew rig up external cargo nets to carry the bodies back." Bruce Lake continued his grim recounting: "Many times when we got back to Hill 55 we would see piles of bodies being carried on the little 4-wheel drive "Mules". It's a sight that isn't easy to forget and served as another vivid reminder of what the war was really like, making me wonder what we were doing over there in Vietnam. Was it really worth it? What a tragic loss of life this whole war caused. If we could have fought the way we wanted to we probably could have won, but even if we did not win we just might have felt better about it. In the States we had been trained how to fight and survive but when we got over here there seemed to be lots of restrictions on how or when we could fight back. I still wondered if it was really worth it. I didn't live or work with the Vietnamese but it seemed to me that their life style wouldn't be any different even if we hadn't gone over there in the first place." Stoddard wrote about similar stories. One was when his friend Frank Saracino was killed. There was another story about a wounded medic had who witnessed 75 First Cavalry soldiers he was part of had walk into an NVA ambush, with 20 men mowed down instantly by a concealed enemy machine gun nest!" 

Certainly a memory to forget, Stoddard remembered the following for inclusion into this book: "I remember this next part as if it were yesterday. I saw a medic crawl over to the pile of bodies trying to give some aid. He didn't have a rifle, only his aid bag as he tried to perform his magic. I watched helplessly as a series of bullets tore through his body, then he fell to the ground. This brave, wounded soldier then got up on his knees, looked me straight in the eyes, and pointed to where the fire was coming from. I nodded back to him that I understood and when more rounds hit and killed this young hero, I saw the smoke from the muzzle of the machine gun." After blowing up the NVA machine gun nest, and killing all occupants, Stoddard remembered this about this incident: "I'll never forget the look on his face. He knew he was going to die, but he tried to help those wounded Calvary guys anyway. If it was not for his selfless dedication, many more lives would have been lost because no one else could see where that machine gun was located." Stoddard added: "Even though we weren't in the same unit and I didn't know his name, this medic is a hero in my book." If this story isn't enough, the next and last anecdote of this review will clearly show the reader why Stoddard never wanted to write this book, especially with the following memory. Ordered to fly on a gun ship in triple canopy jungle to rescue any survivors of a downed Loach (OH-46 Light Observation Helicopter) that was shot out of the sky by NVA anti-aircraft fire, Stoddard painfully recalled this horrible event: "As we approached the crash site, I could see the smoke from the burning Loach and also from the rockets being fired by the cobra gun ships. We made it, we were now on the ground! Now the ARP's (Areo Rifle Platoon) would take charge of this small plot of jungle. My squad was now within 30 yards of our objective, a small 2-man helicopter called a Loach. It was completely burnt and dense black smoke was pouring out of what once was a crew compartment. I tried to locate the missing pilots but I couldn't see them from where we were. We had to get closer. It took us 5 minutes to cover the 30 yards." 

Finally, Stoddard's lasting memory of this event was as follows: I will never forget the horror I saw next. Our 2 pilots were lying side by side next to the chopper. They were both burnt to death, their bodies still smoldering with portions of their flight suits melted to their bodies. The VC had tried to remove their boots (note-the enemy also tried to do the same to Frank Saracino's corpse). You could hardly tell these 2 bodies were once men they were burnt so badly. These 2 poor souls were now just crispy pieces of burnt meat. I started to get the dry heaves. I wanted to vomit but couldn't. I had a job to do. I had to get these 2 young pilots out of there." Stoddard continued his grim story. "This is only the second time I'd ever been real close to our dead. With silent honor, we carefully wrapped each body in a poncho. Body parts were falling off as we lifted the bodies onto the ponchos. My squad tried to lift them up, but they were just too heavy for us. Each pilot must have weighed close to 300 pounds. Jarvis cut down 2 tree limbs to put through the plastic ponchos. "I've seen this before, Jack," he said. Burned bodies are really heavy. We're going to have a hard time carrying these guys out". Between the artillery and the cover fire, we managed to get the 2 pilots to a clearing almost a thousand yards away. It took us almost an hour to get there. We were all exhausted and even had to drag the poor pilots for the last 20 feet. The smell of burnt flesh had finally gotten the best of me and as we laid our pilots on the ground, I fell to my knees and vomited on the jungle floor. I didn't care if anyone saw me or not. Some things are just too much for any man to handle and this was one of them." There are many more stories, some actually quite hilarious. The reader will read the absurd story of Standard's crew having a pet chicken, the amusing story of how Stoddard's tank crew made a projectile partially filled with chewing gum, and much more! A must read by any Vietnam vet or student of American history!