Firebase Tan Tru - Memoir of an Artilleryman in the Mekong Delta, 1969-1970

Walter McDermott graduated with honors from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1968, enlisted in the U.S. Army and was sent to the Mekong Delta in 1969 at the height of the Vietnam War. A specialist with the Ninth Infantry Division, he provided artillery support to infantry patrols while struggling to cope with the authoritarian severity of the Army and the Alice-in-Wonderland madness of the war. His frank memoir relates the surreality of combat and traces his own metamorphosis from thoughtful undergrad to jaded veteran.

List of contents

Table of Contents

Preface

¿1.¿Avoidable Casualties

¿2.¿Basic Training

¿3.¿Advanced Individual Training

¿4.¿Arriving in Country

¿5.¿Tan An

¿6.¿Liaison Specialist and a Failure

¿7.¿Air Power Support

¿8.¿Dinner with a Wealthy Vietnamese Farmer

¿9.¿The Helicopter War

10.¿Rocket Attack

11.¿Losing the War

12.¿Time on Target Attack

13.¿Firebase Animals

14.¿Reconnaissance Platoon Tragedy

15.¿Burning Shit

16.¿Fragging

17.¿The Food

18.¿Weapons

19.¿Atypical Duty

20.¿Unique Nights

21.¿Drugs

22.¿Officers

23.¿Vietnamese Enemies vs. Allies

24.¿Saigon

25.¿Tan An Sniper

26.¿Religion

27.¿Weddings

28.¿Firebase Drinking Clubs

29.¿Viet Cong Attacks

30.¿Media Biases

31.¿Coming Home

32.¿Reflections

Vietnam Glossary

Military Service History of Walter F. McDermott

Index

About the author

Walter F. McDermott, Ph.D., a Vietnam combat veteran, is a retired clinical psychologist who treated combat PTSD veterans for nearly 30 years, mainly at the Jacksonville, Florida, Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic's Mental Health Unit. He lives in Atlantic Beach, Florida.

Product details

• Authors: Walter F. Mcdermott
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: from age 18
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 25.07.2018
• EAN: 9781476668529
• ISBN: 978-1-4766-6852-9
• No. of pages: 218
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 11 mm
• Weight: 277 g
• Illustrations: Raster,schwarz-weiss
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Vietnam, Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Military, Biography: historical, political & military, HISTORY / Military / General, military history, Later 20th century c 1950 to c 1999, Battles & campaigns, Modern warfare, Biography: historical, political and military, Military history: post-WW2 conflicts, c 1945 to c 2000 (Post-war period), HISTORY / Wars & Conflicts / General, Specific wars and military campaigns