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Just Another Day in Vietnam

By: Nightingale, Keith

ISBN: 9781636243023

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"The account is riveting, heart-pounding and mind-racing―just as the battle was for those who fought it…" ― ARMY Magazine

Keith Nightingale’s accomplishments in both military and civilian life largely contribute to the excellence of Just Another Day in Vietnam as a memoir of unusual depth as well as breadth.

Uniquely adopting a third-person omniscient point of view, Nightingale eschews the “I” of memoir in favor of multiple perspectives and a larger historical vision that afford equal time and weight to ally and enemy alike. Examples of the many perspectives based on real-life characters include: Hu, a VC “informant” whose false information led the Rangers straight into the jaws of a ferocious ambush; General Tanh, the COSVN commander; Major Nguyen Hiep, the 52d Ranger Commander; and Ranger POWs later returned by the North.

Nightingale moreover offers the point of view of an American advisor to elite Vietnamese troops, a vital perspective regrettably underrepresented in the literature of Vietnam, including Burns’ documentary. Added to this are well-informed conjecture of enemy psychology; insight into the dedication and often misunderstood role of the elite Vietnamese Ranger forces; the intelligence acquired from debriefing captured Rangers, whose captors had told them that the entire battle had been a carefully staged attack planned by COSVN as part of a larger Total War strategy developed by the leadership of the North Vietnamese Army; and an eyewitness account by a gifted author who is a rare survivor of one of the most vicious—and heretofore forgotten—battles of the war.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

The Ground
The Initiation
The Beginning
The Interrogation
The Plan
Choices
The Ranger Battalion
The Commander
The Assembly
A Proper Regiment
The 175 Artillery Battery
The Mortar Gunners
Movement to Contact
The Pickup Zone
Airborne
The Movement
The Decision
Closure
Aid to Brothers
Division of Responsibility
The Black Lines
The Bug
Command Decision
The Spot
The Spooky
The Ambush
The Rain
The Fog
Reinforcement
Softly in the Night
The Plan
The Shoal of Fish
Fire Support
Infantry and Air
Air Strikes
Bomb Burst
Bien Hoa Control
Light
The VC Prisoner
The Ranger Prisoners
The Arc Light
The B-52 Strike—Air
The B-52 Strike—Ground
The Return
Reconstitution
The General Returns
To The Work