The American War by Don Meyer is a Salute Military Bookish Event pick #militaryfiction #historicalfiction #salutemilitary #giveaway
- N. N. Light
- May 26
- 6 min read
Title: The American War
Author: Don Meyer
Genre: Historical Fiction
Book Blurb:
In the spring of 1966, the North Vietnamese Army overran a Special Forces Camp in the A Shau Valley in South Vietnam. Using the valley as a major staging area for the movement of troops, equipment and supplies, the NVA continued to operate unopposed until the American Forces once again challenged their strong hold in 1968. But it was a year later, when in 1969 another drive into the A Shau Valley, would produce one of the most infamous battles of the war, which many consider a turning point of that war - at least in public opinion.
In the summer of 1864, the Nation's eyes were focused on two major events; Grants pursuit of Lee, bogged down at the siege of Petersburg and Sherman's eventual "March to the Sea" presently bogged down outside Atlanta. In the midst of these two major campaigns, General Philip "Little Phil" Sheridan, forcefully and effectively marched his army into the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia to take on the Confederate strong hold. An earlier campaign in 1862 by the Federals had turned disastrous when Stonewall Jackson had run them out of the valley. Commanded by Confederate General Jubal Early, the rebels were determined not to give up the valley against any new Federal incursion. Sheridan's mission was to take control of the valley and ultimately stop those rebel forces from moving men, equipment and forage in support of Lee. It was to be an epic battle and most agree, a major turning point of that war.
Imagine having been an infantry soldier in one of the helicopters being lifted back into the A Shau Valley...
or imagine having been a Union blue coat soldier, marching en echelon into the Shenandoah Valley ...
Now imagine having been that soldier in both campaigns.
Excerpt:
The explosion of the first mortar round, hitting right inside the compound, shattered the quiet of the night. Before anyone had a chance to react, several other rounds smashed into the earth throwing dirt and debris about. The cries of pain permeated the air as the defenders scrambled for cover.
Artillery shells and small arms fire followed the barrage of explosions. Dead and wounded soldiers were strewn about the camp as the shelling continued without a break in the dark of night. Structures, defenses and the supply depot were all quickly destroyed in the continuing barrage.
An American Special Forces soldier tried to get his bearings inside one of the defensive holes as dust and debris flew around him through the air. He felt a hand grab his shoulder in the flying dust.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, just…”
Lying next to him in the hole, another American Forces soldier, a sergeant, stopped long enough to take a breath. The sergeant swallowed hard, trying to moisten the dust gathering inside his mouth before speaking.
“You still got that radio from yesterday’s patrol?”
Another round hit close to their hole, sending more debris and dust into the air. They shielded themselves from the fallout, and then slowly rose back up.
“I said you still got that radio from patrol yesterday?”
“Yes. Yeah, it’s right here, still on my gear.”
The sergeant nodded, pointing toward the instrument.
“Right now, I don’t know what works and what doesn’t. Looks like they’ve hit everything in camp. Don’t know how many, if any, radios are left working. Guard that thing with your life. Got any extra batteries with you?”
The sergeant watched him nod in the affirmative ...
~
Located in Thua Thien Province of I Corps near the Laotian border, the A Shau Valley is a slit in the mountains, a valley thirty miles or so long, filled with elephant grass as tall as the people trying to walk through it. The natural formation protected by a rim of triple layered canopied jungle. Sitting forty-five miles west of Hue, the remote western edge sits on the Laotian border. Listed as Enemy Base Area 611, the valley has long acted as a main entry point of the Ho Chi Minh Trial into South Vietnam and a strategic NVA operations area. The North Vietnamese used the area as a conduit for bringing in supplies and troops as well as a communications route for the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong operating in and around I Corps in the north.
In the spring of 1966, the A Shau Special Forces Camp at the south end of the valley was just five miles from the border with Laos. A barbed wire and earthen walled triangular shaped fortress about 200 yards long, it included an airstrip of about 2,300 feet comprised of a pierced steel planking base, just outside the perimeter of the camp.
This outpost was astride the route to Hue and Da Nang and was a clog in the NVA offensive strategy. Disrupting a major infiltration route adjacent to the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the camp served as a thorn in the side of the enemy’s plans. Deep in Viet Cong controlled territory, the camp’s role was to monitor traffic coming down that trail on the Laotian border.
Defending the camp were ten American Special Forces soldiers and 210 South Vietnamese Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) soldiers, supported by Air Commando units equipped with A-1 Skyradiers and AC-47 “Spooky” gunships. Patrols were run out of the camp to conduct search and destroy missions, occasionally running into Viet Cong resistance. Initially a rather routine mission, but all that changed in early March, 1966.
Reports of a large scale NVA buildup in the valley, consisting of four battalions, among them the 6th and 8th from the North Vietnamese 325th Division with the express purpose of taking the camp, put everyone on notice. Two days before the attack, the camp was reinforced with seven more American Advisers, interpreters and a MIKE force of 149 Chinese Nung soldiers. The camp was immediately put on alert in preparation for the impending attack.
The North Vietnamese Army came into the A Shau with the sole intention of ridding the valley of the American Special Forces camp and reopen those infiltration routes, desperately needed to move men and supplies into South Vietnam. The camp needed to go and the NVA would stop at nothing short of accomplishing that task.
~
... back at the camp, the NVA quickly moved in to fortify their freshly captured compound and reinforce their position with antiaircraft guns and ground artillery.
The camp was theirs now, but more importantly they owned the A Shau Valley completely, having driven out the last remaining resistance from their valley.
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What makes your featured book a must-read?
Two wars, 100 years apart, an identical battle. One man both places. A look through one soldier’s eyes as he is caught up in both conflicts, the struggles, ahis anxiety and aftermath from having done so. A soldier is a soldier is a soldier.
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Author Biography:
Don's writing career began in 1978, back in Chicago, when a college English class required an impromptu short story exercise at the end of class. That short story became the basis for his Vietnam Memoir. In early 1979 Don started work on a novel.
In 2003 Don published his Vietnam Memoir, followed the next year with (a very rough draft novel) that unfortunately, he also published. His writing career was off and running by shelving that early novel.
Jennifer's Plan was next, followed by the trilogy: Winter Ghost, McKenzie Affair & Uncle Denny. The American War in 2012, The Kittridge Manuscript in 2015 and finally: Some Don't Come Back & Winds of Discontent in 2022. Currently his last book.
Don has published eight novels, a Vietnam Memoir, several short stories and a few essays.
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