We might have been a little louder than recon liked, but we carried about 50#lbs more on our back than they did and we were invited to their parties. He did make it sound like we were gate crashers!

An excellent book, "Home Is Where You Dig It". It is worthy of the saying, "From the outside, you can't understand it, from the inside, I can't explain it, Semper Fi.

As a former U.S.Marine and member of "B" Recon 65/66 I enjoyed reading this book.

We lost members of our company in April through November of 65, as well as a number of us WIA during our tour.

I realize that the author wrote about his experience and had to rely on whatever documentation that he was able to revew concerning our outfit during our deployment from K-Bay Hawaii, to Camp Schwab, Oakinawa and on to Viet Nam.

Aside from a few errors concerning "B" Recon, the book is a must read for any Recon Marine and those who wish they were.

Semper Fi,

Anthony P. De Bellis

(FIRST IN LAST OUT)

I won't loan this book to anyone.

Buy it.

This novel will remain always an historical account of the Marine Corps involvement in Vietnam during its dangerous disengagement in 1970. Well done Michael Hodgens, I hope you will writr more.

The treatment he gave to the major battles was good. He presented an easy to follow account of the battle, what lead up to it and the outcome. He also touched on some of what was happening back home with the politics, but only briefly. I think the most interesting parts of the book for me was the details of the air war, more specifically how the bombing kept escalating and then the final bombing push by Nixon. My only complaint with the book is that it was an overview that was a bit too light on the facts for me. The book was only 270 pages long, and book size do not necessary determine quality, this book could have been a little bit more in-depth. It seemed to me that to get a better understanding a few more pages could have been added without the overview turning into a in depth study.

I also highly reccomend the books by the Lurps he flew: Linderer, Chambers, Burford (?), and others.

The Kirkus Review makes it sound as though this book is dull, and belittles the significance of Mason's incarceration and his description of the way Chickenhawk was recieved by the public. Personally, I thought Mason's imprisonment was conveyed in a style reminiscent of Henri Charrier's Papillon, another of my favorites.

The point is, it is impossible to fully understand or appreciate Chickenhawk as a description of the Vietnam Experience without reading this book. If you liked Chickenhawk, this is a must-read.

One interesting point is this: even though both the USAF and the USN flew the F-4 Phantom, the Navy missiles wouldn't work on the USAF planes because of a difference in the launch rails. The problem was in the way that the Sidewinder seeker was cooled prior to launch. The Navy took one approach to solve the problem and the USAF took another. The Navy did indeed have a better missile, and when one USAF wing commander demanded that he be supplied with Navy Sidewinders for air-to-air combat, he was severely disappointed to find out that he couldn't have them due to disparate technologies.

This isn't a "There I was at 20,000 feet.." type of book. Its more of a "Oyster Flight was on BarCap at 20,000 feet on Route Package VI when Red Crown vectored them to a pair of MiG-21s launching from Phuc Yen..." type of book. Still, it is very exciting reading for avaition enthusiasts and air combat students. There is a careful analysis of each engagement and diagrams are included to illustrate typical strike formations and ECM coverage zones. Very well done.

This book explodes the notion that U.S. pilots' woes over the skies of Vietnam stemmed from political meddling from Washington. Such meddling existed and caused confusion, but Mitchel demonstrates that the big problems were of the military's own making:

* Poor weapons. The story of the sad performance of the Vietnam War era Sidewinder and Sparrow air-to-air missiles is well known. Mitchel's depiction of these failures in scores of air-to-air encounters makes a poignant effect of the reader. * Insufficient training. To meet manpower requirements, the Air Force, according to Mitchel, cut back on air-to-air training and lowered standards. * Improper tactics. Mitchel takes the Air Force to task for clinging to the "fluid four" fighter formation, even in the face of evidence that this formation put U.S. pilots at a severe tactical disadvantage. The Navy's "loose deuce" fighter formation was rejected...because it was a Navy fighter formation.

Such a short summary does "Clashes" an injustice. Like other good military histories, this book leaves the reader convinced that courage and suppleness of mind and body are a warrior's most important weapons. I recommend "Clashes" to fellow military history buffs. My one "picknit" is that Mitchel does not identify the pilots in the numerous air-to-air encounters by name.

This book tells the story of a village and the marines and militia who defended it during the Vietnam War. It is filled with first hand accounts of fast paced fire-fights and battalion-sized battles. The action is riveting, and the story is endearing and heart-wrenching. A squad of marines and platoon of PF militia men fight night-after-night against local guerillas, and at times, VC main force battalions. The Americans become members of the village, eat in families' homes, play with their children, attend weddings, funerals, and holiday festivities. Their emotional ties hearten them, motivate them, and ultimately betray them.

The book was written by Francis J. West, a marine officer and RAND Corporation researcher sent to the village in the late 1960's to study its marine defenders. The marine squad -- seldom numbering more than a dozen -- was known throughout the Marine Corps. It encountered communist units more often than any other unit in the Corps; its members often fought twenty to thirty engagements a month, more than most U.S. battalions.

I've recommended this book to several men in the military, including my brother, a captian in the 10th SF group. All of them, in turn, recommended it to their friends, commanders, and subordinates.

"The Village" is as good as "Bravo Two Zero," "A Bright Shining Lie," and "We Were Soldiers Once, and Young." You won't put this book down until you're finished, and then, you'll read it again and again and give copies to your friends for Christmas.