Guns Up! (43 page)

The author, looking and feeling exhausted, takes a break in the A Shau Valley, 1968. Soon after this photo was taken the author was wounded for the first time by a mortar round. (Author’s collection)

PFC Richard Chan poses after capturing an enemy soldier in Quang Nam Province, 1968. (Author’s collection)

Gy.Sgt. Mac McDermott fires his 12-gauge shotgun at the enemy along a river in the Thua Thien Province, 1968. Bridge duty was considered easy compared to being in the bush. (Photo courtesy of Sgt. Stacy Watson)

Gunny McDermott of A1/5 gets Marines “saddled up” in An Hoa, August 1968. Note the shotgun and shells, Gunny’s calling card. (Photo courtesy of Sergeant Major McDermott)

Sgt. Stacy Watson of A1/5 stands with the flag that was raised over the Citadel by the 5th Marines after the victory of the Battle of Hue City during the Tet Offensive in 1968. Awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. Photo taken before his best friend, Cpl. Frank Burris (Jack Ellenwood in the book), was KIA, August 9, 1968. (Photo courtesy of Sgt. Stacy Watson)

An old French army tank and the three-story bunker that ARVN gunners fired from when the Truoi River Bridge was overrun. The M-24 Chaffee tank was equipped with a 75mm main gun, had a top speed of thirty-five miles per hour, and carried a crew of up to five men. (Author’s collection)

“Frenchie” writing a letter home from the Truoi Bridge. It was here that a Marine was pinned under the bridge and an entire Marine gun team killed. (Author’s collection)

Eighteen-year-old PFC Johnnie Clark in front of the three-story bunker at the Truoi Bridge, just moments before his first long-term experience in the bush, April 1968. (Author’s collection)

Look for Gary Linderer’s two books on LRRPs, LRPs and Rangers in gut-chilling, extreme combat far behind enemy lines. When every mission may well have been their last, these brave men went willingly into harm’s way with only their skills, sense of duty, personal weapons, and each other between themselves and death.

Phantom Warriors Book I and Book II:
LRRPs, LRPs, and Rangers in Vietnam

by Gary A. Linderer

Published by Ballantine Books.
Available at a bookstore near you.

Experience the pain, the pride, and the triumph of the United States Marine Corps.

Not Going Home Alone:
A Marine’s Story

by James J. Kirschke

All the members of 1st Lt. James J. Kirschke’s mortar platoon and then rifle platoon knew what was expected of them: the Marines are America’s military elite, required to train harder, fight longer, sacrifice more. Kirschke led by example in the hotly contested zone just south of the DMZ and in the dangerous An Hoa region southwest of DaNang. Sparing no one, he has written a powerful chronicle of the deadly war his Marines fought with valor.

Published by Ballantine Books.
Available at a bookstore near you.

Forged in blood and courage, sacrifice and survival, in a jungle war none of the soldiers who experienced it will ever forget, this is a true story you won’t want to miss.

Rites of Passage:
Odyssey of a Grunt

by Robert Peterson

Robert Peterson arrived in Vietnam in the fall of 1966, a young American ready to serve his country and seize his destiny. What happened in that jungle war would change his life forever. Peterson vividly relives the tense patrols in the Viet Cong-infested Central Highlands, the fierce ambushes and enemy charges. From this deadly hell he reveals the special brotherhood formed between these brave young men.

Published by Ballantine Books.
Available at a bookstore near you.