Our War. The History and Sacrifices of an Infantry Battalion in the Vietnam War, 1968-1971
Author: David W. Taylor. Non-Fiction Military History – Vietnam War
ISBN # 978-0-9832683-0-7 Library of Congress: LCCN # 2011920663
Book Reviews – Our War
(Reviewer contact information is available for editors)
“Our War” is a detailed, comprehensive and superbly researched tribute to all we endured as members of the 5th/46th Infantry Battalion”
Tim O’Brien
National Book Award Winner and Pulitzer Prize nominee
David Taylor’s “Our War” should be required reading for West Point cadets. All wars are unique, but all wars entail young enlisted men and junior officers killing and dying. There is an inevitable learning curve in all of this. No war should merely serve as an opportune occasion for career enhancing assignments within the permanent officer class. The brutal reality of both those assertions is all too well documented in “Our War”
James Callahan
Colonel (Ret) Special Forces
(Three-tour Vietnam War veteran)
“Our War” is an unparalleled tribute to the tremendous sacrifices and toll exacted on one combat battalion in the Vietnam War. In graphic detail, author David Taylor goes beyond describing the day-to-day operations of three years of combat. His work details how scores of Purple Hearts were earned, sometimes as the result of leadership shortcomings, often in tandem with tremendous acts of heroism. This book is a stellar tribute to an infantry battalion at war and a unique record of its service.
John Roos
Former Editor – Armed Forces Journal
David Taylorbelieves his book is “the most comprehensive history of an infantry battalion in the Vietnam War.” I think he’s right. At nearly 700 pages, his narrative of the battles fought by the 5th/46th Infantry Battalion of the Americal Division is a detailed examination of the latter years of the Vietnam conflict – rendered as the “average grunt” saw it in all its dangers, challenges, and agonies. Dave Taylor commanded an infantry platoon in the Americal, and he wants his readers to gain “a greater appreciation for the American soldiers who fought and sacrificed” in this thankless war. In this, he has certainly hit the mark, sparing no words to convey the climate, the missions and the men that served with him during his combat service in 1969. On the way the reader learns about Taylor’s men, their backgrounds and their ultimate fates.
Taylor provides a day to day account of the dangers the men encountered when engaging the elusive Viet Cong, clearing and holding hamlets to deny their foes bases from which to operate. In Vietnam, Americans and South Vietnamese alike used the words “number ten” to denote the absolute worst in everything – the biggest foul ups, the most dangerous missions, the crappiest situations. There are number tens aplenty in Taylor’s narrative.
Relating “pacification” operations conducted in September 1969, for example, Taylor’s battalion was successful in these missions, but they were repeatedly sidetracked when “brigade and division staff” officers suddenly ordered them to seek “head on” battle in order to “claim higher body counts.” Even though these body counts created satisfying press releases, the foot soldiers paid for the publicity in blood, being hit with concentrated “RPG rounds fired at close range” and suffering heavier casualties.
These are the kinds of frustrating battles that Taylor relates again and again in his story. They were struggles that left the soldierswondering if their losses, and the indifference (at best) that they found among the Vietnamese civilians, made their efforts worthwhile. But, as Taylor notes, they carried on with their duties and paid the price. To make certain the reader understands that price, Taylor provides an appendix of those who died, giving them the honor they deserve.
Our War is illustrated with photographs and easy-to-follow maps. The narrative is based on thousands of pages of unit records at the National Archives and interviews the author conducted with over a hundred men. Taylor’s book is not for the casual reader. But for anyone who wants to understand what it was really like for the men who served in Vietnam, his story is well worth the effort.
Terry Shoptaugh
Professor of History
Minnesota State University Moorhead
David Taylor, in Our War has done the unimaginable, covering the entire history of a battalion in the Vietnam War at the grass level, not with excerpts from field reports, but by reliving its history day by day with the soldiers who fought in it. It is the best detailed book about the Vietnam War that I’ve read and I’ve read a barn-full, plus writing two books myself!
Chuck Carlock
Author of the best-selling Firebirds and co-author of Rattlers and Firebirds
Our War answers the perennial question: “What was it like to fight in the Vietnam War?” It has it all, the sudden death, the smell of explosives, the searing pain of wounds and the frustrations of America’s finest as they attempt to accomplish their missions in America’s most unpopular war. Our War humanizes the inhumane truth about the war and the sacrifices of a generation of ordinary young men who served without glory.
Paul Longgrear
Colonel-Special Forces (USA-Ret)
Alpha Company Commander, 5th/46th Infantry Battalion
Member of the US Army’s Ranger and Officer Candidate School Halls of Fame
I have never read a book like Our War, probably because such a book has not been written. The individuals were portrayed so vividly I found myself adopting them emotionally as surrogate sons and brothers, only to read of their deaths or severe wounds.
Edmund A. Krekorian, M.D.
Colonel – Medical Corps, (USA-Ret.)
Americal Division Surgeon & Medical Battalion Commander - Vietnam
Our War is written with incredible detail; it is an absolutely amazing chronology of a battalion at war; a fantastic piece of work
Colonel Ronald R. Richardson (Ret)
5th/46th Infantry Battalion Commander 1968-1969