Explore Recondo: LRRPs In The 101st Airborne Crafted By Larry Chambers Offered As Physical Edition

book about the LRRP's of the Vietnam war, Very readable and gripping storyline, Could have been longer, I'm sure there was much left out of the book, It's weird how someone can write a book like this, He experiences the full range of human emotion over the course of one year and is able, years later, to vividly recall each different phase and present it in language and with stories that make it all come alive for the reader.
It's basically four sections. The first two chapters are about the guy getting drafted, going through basic, choosing airborne, going over to nam, being all wide eyed and fascinated by the helicopters and then choosing to join the Long Range Patrol LRP team.
In the next section he is out on patrols, has some scary moments, makes some really good friends and then loses some of them to an ambush and a bunch of others go home.
In the next section he goes to Recondo school has other adventures such as capturing an NVA officer and eventually goes back to his unit, In the final section he is sort of winding down, he gets struck by lightening while out on a patrol, has some odd assignments, gets over his fear of helicopters, feels like all his friends are gone and there's really no one he can relate to, eventually is sent home and feels like a complete alien.
Very weird, sad, anticlimactic ending, . .

People always say that veterans, . . especially Vietnam Veterans are all bottled up and don't want to talk about it, but usually they talk to me about it, . . at least a little. This guy says at the end of the book: "It didn't matter because nobody seemed to have any interest in where I'd been or what I'd been doing, I really wanted someone to ask, I wanted to tell someone about what it was like trying to survive in torrential rain and mud and thick steamy jungle, and the danger I'd faced, I wanted to recount details about the combat I was in, complete with the numbers of kills and a listing of awards, "

I'm glad he was able to write this book and tell this story and I'm glad so many soldiers have benefitted from his wisdom over the years, Fantastic and intense book that I could not put down! I picked this up at a yard sale forcents and was much better than I could have expected, I am a history buff but I never really learned about our tactics in Vietnam, This book has given me an even bigger respect for what our troops did in Vietnam, especially the special forces, If you're looking for an intense and gripping true story that is an easy read this book is definitely for you! "Recondo" is a captivating and engaging story about an infantry soldier who goes to Vietnam and volunteers for the LRRPs in thest Airborne and later gets accepted into the prestigious Recondo training program.
The training is rigorous, demanding, and sometime dangerous, The author doesn't go into much detail about the training modules but paints an overview for readers to get a feel for what it was like, Therd week final week entailed small teams to go into the Ashau Valley to gather intelligence and to locate an NVA Regimental headquarters, A program cadre member accompanies each team failure for individuals to demonstrate skills from their first two weeks of training will result in expulsion from the class,

Chambers and his team climb mountains and near the end of the week find themselves in a situation that was almost unbelievable this hill was later immortalized as Hamburger HIll by thest grunts after theirday battle to take the mountaintop.
As a formerst grunt myself, I could relate to much of what the author wrote, I was familiar with the mentioned firebases and also patrolled through the Ashau Valley, We also learned that holding blasting caps during a thunder storm could be hazardous to our health, and especially, if they were already installed in grenades, claymore mines, Cor carried loose in somebody's pocket my unit experienced that same thing that Chambers LRRPs did during a storm, but without the same consequences.
I also enjoyed the author's wit and sense of humor many of the comments he made during the story made me laugh out loud,

"Recondo" flowed nicely and kept my interest from beginning to end, It would have been an added bonus if the author might have touched upon his RampR to Australia, . . showing what these soldiers experienced and why the trip was so important to them, I thoroughly enjoyed this story and recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about these small LRRP teams their missions and training to survive, Great job, Mr. Chambers. Thank you for your service and sacrifice, Welcome home, bro! Fantastic read, Gripping, intense, wellwritten and researched, Provides an outstanding account of LRRP tactics, equipment, organization, and operational procedure, One man has told more in a few hundred pages than an LRRP encyclopedia can tell in thousands, Also provides a great account of the littleknown yet highly influential MACV Recondo School, Definitely check this one out, Lately I have been reading about LRRPS in Vietnam, This is my second book on the subject and it was an interesting book, The courage these men display going deep in the jungles of Vietnam close to the Viet Cong is outstanding and I'm sure scary, The author describes the training in the Recondo school to become a LRRP, Nha Trang Wikipedia
Search domain sitelinken, wikipedia. org/wiki/NhaTranghttps:
When Cam Ranh Bay used to be an important naval base, Nha Trang Airport was the main airport of the city, This airport was used by the United States Air Force and Republic of Vietnam Air Force during the Vietnam War, NAH TRANG Pretty good Vietnam war memoir, If biography and war are of interest, check it out One of the best 'tactician' books around, You can learn alot of practical tactics, if you are in a military unit and need some extra material to perform your job better, I am the author. I wrote that years ago, I'm here in Cambodia writing about my trip to vietnam, My trip back to Vietnam did more to heal my own PTSD than atherapists could have even done because I was able to see the Vietnamese as real people, not as targets, gooks, sloops, or someone to fear.
I had a moment of insightful on the winding mountain road to the A Shau Valley three hours West of Hue city the battlefield where myst Division fought during my tour.
We followed a body retrieval truck for NVA missing soldiers, A grim reminder of our shared past and the shared human need to bring home the missing and dead, Honestly I never thought about the enemy as having families that would still search for their dead forty years later, like have, That was the healthiest journey that I have ever experienced in my life because I saw things for the way they really were, not the way I imagined them to be.
I found that almost everything I once believed about present day vietnam wasnt true,

Most of what we had been told about the NVA soldiers that were fought against were mostly a collection of myths, legends, fables, and basic bullshit, The NVA soldiers didnt have some kind of unique ability to live in that harsh jungle environment without the same problems we had, The truth is they suffered like we did in that hot unforgiving Asian jungle and many died before they ever got to the battlefieldsand not from Bair strikes either mostly from the same list of deadly things that happened to anyone trying to march on foot a thousand miles through some hot insectinfested jungle.


Vietnam today is the model of prosperity, ten years of double digit economic growth, practically no poverty, and a literacy rate so high that every Asian country should feel embarrassed about.
I was curious as to what happened to Vietnam but felt a little disappointed when I didnt find at least part of the country in rubble, Maybe its just me but growing up believing the best thing that could have ever happen to Japan and Germany was losing World War Two to America, Because afterwards we invested billions to help them rebuild all while we provided military protection, After the war both countries were restricted to a small percentage that they could spend on their military, those saving were reinvested into their economies giving them both a competitive advantage.
But that didn't happen that way for Vietnam, America left and never looked back, and for most of the last forty years pretended as if Vietnam didnt exist in the western world, So Vietnam whatever Vietnam did they did on their own and without any help from America, Maybe its Karma or maybe its their hybrid model of a centrally controlled government over a freemarket economy, but for whatever reason theyve been doing something right,

I share in the pain people on both sides share who lost family but there is a huge gap in history has been missing and Im committed to changing that.
During my tour I witness incredible acts of bravery, heroism and camaraderie,
Larry Chambers the author
Excellent, Read anything by Chambers A really good memoir from a year in Vietnam, The author's details and stories ringtrue, all the more so for not being really polished prose, Awesome Book

One of the best books on the war in Vietnam, A must read to all the war junkies out there, I love the way the book is written and the way the story is told, I loved his humor , in all the book is well balanced and I would recommend this book to everyone ! I received two books from my brother, this one and "Eyes Behind Enemy Lines" by Gary Linderer.

I read the book by Gary first,
I was surprised as I started the second book that the author of this book “Recondo” and the author of the first book I read “Eyes behind the lines” not only knew each other.
They were in the same company in Vietnam and overlapped by aboutmonths, This made for very interesting reading,
The books are about day to day events in L Company, Rangers, in Vietnam,

I am a Vietnam Vet but have never been interested in reading about the war, These books have changed my mind, I find them very enjoyable,
The book is a work of literature from a first person account of the Vietnam War, Mr. Chambers provides the reader with a concise and, yet comprehensive perspective from his eyes these same “eyes” were behind the enemy lines during the Vietnam War, The historical backdrop within the introduction provides the reader a chance to feel the location of life and innocence before going to Vietnam, Once in Vietnam we read and can literally “see” the tribulations for what they were many brave men went off to this war and, yet many died as a result of the poor political choices that the President of the time on down through the chambers of the House and Senate.
The clamoring protesters assisted the North Vietnamese in this time frame General Giap himself had stated this long before his own death,

If the First World War veterans would later be called the “Lost Generation” then the Vietnam War Veterans could be called the “Expended Generation”, They were underappreciated for many reasons and as they were expected to go to war they did, Mr. Chambers captures within this book the grimy, dirty life of a LRP, One in which showers maybe at times weeks away from the last, The essence is captured in a manner to where I became mesmerized and felt I was “there” inserting and extracting, My stomach jittered when Mr, Chambers expressed in writing his own internal fears as VC may have been as close asmeters away or less and had not noticed the LRP team in hiding

The moments of the book that touched me deeply were not only when close friends had been killed or wounded but, Mr.
Chambers reflects several times upon his Father it is obvious he has still to this day an admiration and love for his Dad that entwines with his own existence and soul.
These reflections allow the reader to momentarily pause before “going out again” from Camp Eagle,

This book should be mandatory reading for any person who considers themselves a student of Military History regardless if youve served in uniform the “ivory tower” needs to step back from the occasional smugness and get dirty with these heroes.
I hope one day that Mr, Chambers will come back to this book and add an “Afterward” in a future edition, I wished this book had gone on for anotherpages this is how wrapped I was in this book I intentionally read this one slow each word on each page was literature in its own form and manner.
The appendices in this book assist the reader to keep it all together I found myself going to and fro the back of the book to the pages I was on attempting to “see” what Mr.
Chambers experienced.

Thank you Vietnam Veterans for your service I am grateful for what you attempted to do and brave you all were,

Semper Fidelis,
Gerry
Pretty good book and worth reading although not one that I'll save and add to the collection or anything, If you're interested in Scouts, Recon, or the Vietnam War then this is probably right up your alley, I have to admit that before reading this I wasn't really familiar with the old Recondo school that was run and taught in Vietnam although I'd come across a few references to it in other reading.
The writer referred to it as "Graduate School for LRRPs, " I almost wish that we still ran some schools that way but having a school taught in country where the final week is a real world mission in which people are sometimes known to die would probably not go over very well with the American people or the press in today's world.
The author's storytelling is very to the that i'm really engross to book that i miss multiple stops on the train afew times Continuing my current "military library" reading streak, we have "Recondo" by Larry Chambers.
This is a book I've owned for years and have read several times, Reading it from beginning to end again was enlightening though you pick up on things you missed before, things you weren't old enough or mature enough to realize, etc,


SUMMARY
Larry Chambers recounts his time in Vietnam from late, during which he served with F Company,th Infantry later changed to L Companyth Infantry Ranger.
These men were members of Long Range Patrols LRPs, and would infiltrate enemy territory in small, sixman teams to gather intelligence, ambush enemy forces, and coordinate artillery and air strikes for days at a time.
Chambers spends a fair amount of the book describing the three weeks he spent at MACV Recondo School at Nha Trang,


OVERALL:.out of
I read this book in two days, despite having read it a few times before, It's good, it's fast, and it's fun despite involving the generally unpleasant subject matter of war,

I believe that this is because Larry Chambers is himself a fun, interesting guy, Everyone else describes him that way, and even in the photographs where all the other LRPs/Rangers are snarling and showing their warface, Larry is frequently grinning young Larry Chambers kind of looks like young JeanClaude Van Damme, if you ask me.


His writing voice comes across as very personable, and he's easy to relate to, Whereas Gary Linderer has a fiancé waiting for him and a good Midwest Missouri background, Chambers spends his time daydreaming about girls, cars, and lowcut Converse shoes, It's impossible for me not to agree with Gary Linderer: Chambers seems to go through some of the ugliest stuff and come out smelling like roses,

This is an excellent book its shortcomings are due to the short length, I would recommend it to anyone, though I think it is best read when combined with Gary Linderer's "Eyes of the Eagle" and "Eyes Behind the Lines" and John Burford's "LRRP Team Leader".
The "Six Silent Men" series also sheds more light on the unit, the missions, the personalities, and the history, Chambers has his own voice, his own stories, and his own humor that makes his contribution to the unit's history unique and enjoyable,


RATINGS BY CATEGORY
CHARACTERS:out of
Capturing the core of a real person in nonfiction is difficult reality is more subtle than the exaggerated characters found in fiction.
Chambers does an okay job, though he doesn't spend a lot of time describing anyone in detail, There are a few introductions when he first meets people, but others are just introduced as people the author had known for a few weeks or few months, They disappear as quickly without much explanation,

This is a difficult category to rate for anyone who has read books by other people in the author's unit Gary Linderer's "Eyes of the Eagle" and "Eyes Behind the Lines", "LRRP Team Leader" by John Burford, "Six Silent Men: Books" by Reynel Martinez, Kenn Miller, and Gary Linderer, because the reader develops clear ideas about the soldiers of F Company despite differences in authors and their friendships, they're all pretty consistent when describing people.

I don't think the author's goal was to really dig into the men he was around though he recounts his time in Vietnam, and the major players are described well.



PACE:out of
Chambers's book is fast I wish it was longer and as detailed as Gary Linderer's nearly dayforday recounting, This is mostly the "highlights" of the author's time in Vietnam he goes from a "cherry" new guy to an experienced Ranger in about three or four chapters, The action is fast and never feels exaggerated or glamorous,


STORY:out of
I don't think it's possible for someone engaged in the

type of missions of the LRRP/LRP/Rangers were involved in could have a boring story.
Chambers does a good job describing his surroundings, the events, his thoughts, and his motivations, He doesn't shy away from some of the embarrassing stuff though he doesn't mention the ammo bunker Gary Linderer claims he accidentally blew up his own mistakes and fears are on display.


Chambers doesn't have any of the "desperate battle" stories of his own that some of the other authors from his unit can describe, Most readers would probably agree with Linderer that Chambers had a degree of luck that other men just didn't have he was never shot or spent time in a convalescence hospital at least, not that he mentions, and though he was present during some bad fights, he was usually on another mission far away.
He has his challenges, but his lack of "really bad" experiences in addition makes his book more fun, . . though that doesn't mean he didn't suffer and lose his fair share of friends either,


DIALOGUE:out of
The dialogue is realistic and feels authentic, and not as profanityladen as the books of some of Chambers's contemporaries, There's still plenty of adult language though I don't want to be accused of misinformed those readers with pink ears,


STYLE/TECHNICAL:out of
The writing is generally clear and easy to understand, but there were some parts that don't link up, A few passages appeared to be contradictory, while there were two or three paragraphs total in the entire book that felt like first drafts repetitive words, the same idea expressed twice in as many sentences, etc.
There's nothing here to stop a reader from understanding, enjoying, and finishing the book though,
.