E. Tayloe Wise

Broschiertes Buch

Eleven Bravo

A Skytrooper's Memoir of War in Vietnam

Beschreibung

E. Tayloe Wise served in Vietnam from May 1969 through April 1970. During those 11 months, he wrote an estimated 750-800 letters home. This memoir is based on those letters, which recounted the details of his experiences and also served as an outlet where he could express the terror, tedium and even boredom of his daily life while in Vietnam. It tells the story of the Vietnam War as this foot soldier viewed it from the jungle, as both a rifleman and a combat medic who was forced to learn his medical skills under fire, and who later became a personal waiter in the private mess hall of Major General E.B. Roberts, the Commanding General of the 1st Cavalry Division (Air Mobile). The story begins with a record of Wise's military history, his training as an infantryman in Leesville, Louisiana and his arrival in Vietnam on May 2, 1969. Chapter two details his first experience under enemy fire on May 11, when suicide squads penetrated their perimeter with the purpose of inflicting the maximum amount of damage with disregard to even the attackers' own lives. Chapters five and six recount the August 1969 battle of LZ Becky, a landing zone that was constructed just south of the Cambodian border and was destroyed only four weeks later. Chapter seven relates Wise's experiences after receiving a job as a waiter in the Commander General's mess hall. On April 9, 1970, his service ended and he headed home. The book contains diagrams of several battles and the author's personal photographs taken while he was in the jungle and in the rear echelon area of Phuoc Vinh.

Autor

E. Tayloe Wise grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia. On his mother's side of the family, he is a direct (seventh generation) descendant of Martha Dandridge Custis, whose second husband was George Washington. He is the great-great-grandson of Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise. In May 1968, he graduated from Texas Christian University with a degree in geography, sociology, and anthropology.The following month, June 1968, he volunteered and enlisted in the U. S. Army and was trained to be a combat infantryman-or in military lingo, an Eleven Bravo. He arrived in Vietnam on May 2, 1969, and was assigned to serve with the 1st Air Cavalry Division, Air Mobile. While with his infantry company, he operated in the jungles of Tay Ninh Province and saw heavy combat during which he became his platoon's medic. He was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for heroism along with three Bronze Stars, two of which were for heroism. He also was awarded the Combat Infantryman's Badge and the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross. He ended his tour as an aide to Major General E. B. Roberts, the Commanding General of the 1st Cavalry Division, and left Vietnam on April 8, 1970, after serving 342 days in country.The author then worked in his family's commercial real estate business in Charlottesville before retiring in 1989. He was accepted into the University of Richmond's graduate school and earned a Master's Degree in history in 1991. He did post-graduate work at American University in Washington, D.C. In the late 1990s and the early 2000s, he taught Asian history at the University of Richmond. He has also taught Asian history in Richmond, Virginia, at the Shepherd's Center and the Osher Center, both open universities for seniors.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: McFarland
• Seitenzahl: 296
• Erscheinungstermin: 12. Juli 2004
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 18mm
• Gewicht: 484g
• ISBN-13: 9780786419166
• ISBN-10: 0786419164
• Artikelnr.: 21249268