It Took Heroes - A Cavalry Chaplain's Memoir of Vietnam

Informationen zum Autor Chaplain Claude D. Newby served thirty-three years on active duty, including two tours with the 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam. His combat awards and decorations include the Combat Infantryman Badge, three Bronze Stars for valor, an Army Commendation for valor, three Purple Hearts, an Air Medal for participating in more than fifty combat assaults, two additional Bronze Stars for service, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, and the Vietnamese Honor Medal. He is one of two chaplains to receive the Combat Infantryman Badge while serving as a chaplain, and the only one to do so in the Vietnam War. Chaplain Newby lives with his wife, Helga, in Bountiful, Utah. They have seven children, twenty-nine grandchildren, and two great-granddaughters. Klappentext The soldiers in 1st Cav fought some of Vietnam's fiercest battles— and Chaplain Newby was there right beside them. For grunts in Vietnam! the war was a jungle hell of sudden death! endless suffering! and supreme courage. For Chaplain Newby! it was an honor to be chosen to share it with them. In enemy-held highlands and fetid jungles! Newby regularly accompanied patrols! company-sized missions! chopper strikes! and air rescues—sharing the men's dreams! their fears! and their dying moments. Searing! brutally accurate! and dedicated to the truth! Claude Newby's account of brave men fighting a tragic war captures that time in all its horror and heroism. Newby doesn't shrink from exposing the war's darker side; his quiet description of the murderous events that came to be known as "the Mao incident” proves that justice can prevail. Ultimately! Newby's riveting stories reveal the tremendous valor and sacrifices of ordinary Americans facing constant danger! shattering losses! and an increasingly indifferent nation. His book is a shining tribute to those who fought! those who died! and those who came home to a country determined to forget them. one Marching as to War (From the hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers") Braniff Airline Charter Flight W243B departed Travis Air Force Base, California, at 2:38 p.m. September 14, destination South Vietnam with stops on the way in Alaska and Japan. As the airplane plunged forward toward whatever awaited, my pained thoughts hung tightly to the wife and five children I left behind. I could hardly believe I was here, an Army chaplain headed into war. The final leg of this journey really began a year and a half earlier on a Sunday evening in February 1965. Helga was already in bed when I decided to visit Alan Smith, a fellow seminary teacher and neighbor. During the visit I informed Smith that I had tendered my resignation from my teaching position, effective at the end of the current school year. "Why don't you return to the Army as a chaplain?" Smith asked. "No thanks," I snapped, "I've had enough of the Army." Between 1952 and 1958 I had been an enlisted soldier and was currently a medic on a Special Forces A-team in the National Guard. Not to be put off by my reflexive response, Smith referred me to an article in the latest edition of the Deseret News. The piece announced that for the first time since the Korean War, the military services were accepting chaplaincy applications from Latter-day Saints. By an agreement worked out between the military services and the LDS Church, acceptable applicants could enter the chaplaincy under an educational waiver of the requirement that all chaplains have 90 hours of graduate credit and a divinity-school degree. This requirement had been an almost impossible barrier for LDS candidates because their church had neither divinity schools nor professional clergy. For Mormons, a bachelor's degree would henceforth be sufficient. So read the announcement-I had one of those! Though I'd reflexively rejected Alan's suggestion about the chaplaincy, I had second thoughts as I walked home from his ho...

Product details

• Authors: Claude Newby
• Publisher: Presidio Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 04.03.2003
• EAN: 9780345459138
• ISBN: 978-0-345-45913-8
• No. of pages: 568
• Dimensions: 105 mm x 173 mm x 32 mm