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Nam Sense Surviving Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Division by Arthur Wiknik Jr
Nam Sense Surviving Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Division by Arthur Wiknik Jr
Soft Cover
272 pages 30 B&W photos
Copyright 2005
CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgements xi
Chapter 1: Vietnam Apprenticeship 1
Chapter 2: No Career Moves for Me 19
Chapter 3: The Battle for Hamburger Hill 33
Chapter 4: The A Shau Valley 55
Chapter 5: The Bamboo Shooters 87
Chapter 6: The Emotional Gauntlet 105
Chapter 7: Ghosting in the Rear 117
Chapter 8: The Bamboo Blues 145
Chapter 9: Guns and Chain Saws 171
Chapter 10: R&R Hawaii 183
Chapter 11: Return to Vietnam 197
Chapter 12: Insanity to go, Please 213
Chapter 13: Vacation Time 229
Chapter 14: Countdown to Freedom 237
Chapter 15: Going, Going ... 247
Epilogue 255
Glossary 259
Bibliography 263
Index 267
Maps and Illustrations
Indochinafrontis
A Shau Valley56
A photo gallery follows page 130
ON THE BACK COVER
Nam-Sense is the brilliantly written story of a combat squad leader in the 101st Airborne Division. Arthur Wiknik was a 19-year-old kid from New England when he was drafted by the army in 1968. After completing NCO training, he was promoted to sergeant "without ever setting foot in a combat zone," and sent to Vietnam in early 1969. On his first jungle patrol the night after his arrival, his squad killed a female Viet Cong who turned out to have been the local prostitute. It was the first dead person he had ever seen.
Wiknik's account of life and death in Vietnam includes everything from heavy combat to faking insanity to get some R&R. He was the first man in his unit to reach the top of Hamburger Hill during one of the last offensives launched by U.S. forces, and later discovered a cache of weapons that prevented an attack on his advance Fire Support Base. Between the sporadic episodes of combat he mingled with the locals, tricked unwitting American suppliers into providing his platoon with a year of good food, defied a superior and was punished with a dangerous mission, and struggled with himself and his fellow soldiers as the anti-war movement began to affect their ability to wage victorious war.
Nam-Sense offers a perfect blend of candor, sarcasm, and humorand it spares nothing and no one in its attempt to accurately convey what really transpired during this unpopular war. Nam-Sense is not about heroism, mental breakdowns, haunting flashbacks, or wallowing in self-pity. The GIs Wiknik lived and fought with during his yearlong tour did not rape, murder, or burn villages, were not strung out on drugs, and did not enjoy killing. They were there to do their duty as they were trained, support their comrades, and get home alive.
Wiknik has written a gripping and complete record of life and death in Vietnam, and he has done so with a style and flair few others will ever achieve.
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