The Odyssey of Echo Company

August 1, 2017
An admiring history of men who fought in the Vietnam War.Of the original 45 members in Recon Platoon, Echo Company, 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry, 2nd Brigade, of the 101st Airborne Division, three were killed in action. Add to that the many wounded, and the platoon suffered a 75 percent casualty rate. In a breathless, sometimes-overwrought narrative that nonetheless keeps the soldiers at the center, Stanton (Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of U.S. Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan, 2009, etc.) tells the story of this group of men and how they endured the 1968 Tet Offensive, one of Vietnam's vital turning points. The author, who has written two other military histories that fall in the same blood, guns, and trumpets category as this one (an adaptation of his previous book will be released as a Jerry Bruckheimer-produced film in 2018), effectively evokes the rush, chaos, misery, and tragedy of combat. Stanton burrows into the mechanics of how men work in teams that of necessity must be extremely close-knit, especially in a conflict as chaotic as Vietnam. The author has a keen eye for detail and uses the words--both in letters from the time and from recent interviews with the men--to generally fine effect. The decision to render history in the present tense is always curious. Some writers believe it lends immediacy where others will see a false authority, but it is generally effective in rendering the madness of war. Stanton does not concern himself with the debates over the war or its legacy; his emphasis is on this group of men and their experiences then and since. A flawed but readable piece of Vietnam War history, and readers will sympathize with these young men captured in a time and place that few can imagine.

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October 30, 2017
Actor Wilson’s sensitive reading heightens Stanton’s story of one soldier and his platoon during the brutal 1968 Tet Offensive. Stanley Parker, a typical American teenager, is spurred to join the Army in 1967 by a patriotic desire to serve his country and naive visions of battlefield glory. He and his fellow members of Echo Company arrive in-country and are plunged into the chaos of firefights, booby traps, and a relentless and elusive enemy. Parker is wounded three times; he eventually makes it home, but the trauma of war stays with him. Wilson brings a calm, world-weary spirit to his reading that effectively captures the disillusionment and emotional exhaustion of Parker’s time in Vietnam. His recounting of a child being killed by the Viet Cong for accepting a can of peaches from Parker and his resulting emotional breakdown is presented with heart-wrenching clarity, as are numerous scenes of death and destruction. Wilson ever so slightly picks up the pace and adds energy to recount Parker’s return to Vietnam in 2014, where he meets a former Viet Cong soldier at a site where the two fought against each other. It makes for a very moving ending to this intense war story. A Scribner hardcover.

September 1, 2017

Fresh out of high school in 1966, Stanley Parker enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. The second of the Parker brothers to serve in the armed forces, Stanley wanted to go to Vietnam because "that's where the fighting was." On December 27, 1967, he celebrated his 20th birthday in the midst of a fierce firefight. By the time he left Vietnam in 1968, his unit Echo Company (First Battalion Airborne) had engaged in 17 combat assaults. On January 30, 1968, the Viet Cong launched a massive counterattack, the Tet Offensive, leading Echo Company to be constantly under attack. In the first 34 days of the offensive, the unit lost three men; 31 more were wounded for a 75 percent casualty rate. Parker was injured three times, rejecting his third Purple Heart because accepting the award meant a mandatory return back to the United States. Stanton (In Harm's Way) is a sympathetic observer. By focusing on Parker's story, from high school through the war's long aftermath, the author gives shape (though not meaning) to a conflict that was more disillusioning than most. VERDICT We are finally ready to learn more about Vietnam, and no book tells the story better than this one.--David Keymer, Cleveland

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2016

On January 31, 1968, the North Vietnamese army attacked 36 cities throughout South Vietnam, which left the 12 soldiers of the recon platoon of the 101st Airborne Division fighting hand to hand for their survival. From the New York Times best-selling author of In Harm's Way; with an eight-city tour.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.