The quintessential first-person combat memoir of a special forces soldier fighting in the jungles of Vietnam.

This is the quintessential first-person combat memoir of a special forces soldier at war. Edward Dvorak joined the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vietnam in the summer of 1967. He then joined Company F, 51st Infantry, Long Range Patrol, Airborne.

For Dvorak and his buddies of Company F, LRP, their real training started with the MACV (Military Assistant Command Vietnam) Recondo School at the 5th Special Forces Compound in Nha Trang, South Vietnam. That training culminated with an actual Combat LRP mission. If you lived through the patrol, you graduated.

Dvorak would remain with Company F for 19 months going on dozens of combat patrols deep behind enemy lines.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• The First Three Principles of a Lurp’s Field Manual
• A Combat Seasoned Lurp’s Opinion
• Prologue
• Chapter 1 You’re in the Army Now
• Chapter 2 The 173rd Airborne Brigade (aka The Herd)
• Chapter 3 Dak To
• Chapter 4 Walking point for the 4th Battalion of the 173rd Abn Brigade
• Chapter 5 My Fifth Act of Volunteering
• Chapter 6 MACV Recondo School
• Chapter 7 The First Mission as a Lurp
• Chapter 8 In the Rear Routine
• Chapter 9 Training for LURPS, Repelling and McQuire Rigs
• Chapter 10 A Lurp Team’s Mission Preparations
• Chapter 11 First Contact for Team 1-5
• Chapter 12 Top of Lurp Pride, Bottom of the Patrol List
• Chapter 13 New Years, a Festive and Dangerous Holiday
• Chapter 14 Continuing Pre-TET Missions
• Chapter 15 1968 TET Offensive, Phase 1
• Chapter 16 The E-Ticket Ride: Pre-Tet, 1968
• Chapter 17 The Tet Offensive; Phase II, The Attack
• Chapter 18 Shit Burning Detail
• Chapter 19 Post-Tet, February 4, 1968
• Chapter 20 Death from Above (Almost)
• Chapter 21 Intelligence Missions for the Alphabet Agency
• Chapter 22 A Week as a LURP/Standdown and Bellyman; February 10, 1968
• Chapter 23 A Short Mission; February 11, 1968
• Chapter 24 February 29, 1968, a Routine Lurp Mission
• Chapter 25 Deadly Shit Happens in a War Zone
• Chapter 26 Another Day in the Artillery War Zone
• Chapter 27 Supervision 101 in the Combat Zone
• Chapter 28 R&R in Australia
• Chapter 29 Murphy and the Grim Reaper Pay Team 1-5 a Visit; April 12, 1968
• Chapter 30 Our New AO; Cu Chi; April 23, 1968
• Chapter 31 Loches; Hunter Killer Teams
• Chapter 32 24 Hours in the Life of a LURP at Basecamp
• Chapter 33 24 Hours in the Life of a LURP on a Mission
• Chapter 34 Patience is a Required Virtue for a Lurp Team/Team Members
• Chapter 35 Near Death First Mission after Returning from Leave in South Dakota
• Chapter 36 An Ambush Initiated By Smell
• Chapter 37 Selecting a Primary and Secondary LZ
• Chapter 38 Top Secret Intelligence/Need to Know
• Chapter 39 An Arc Light that Hit a Target
• Chapter 40 Vi Va Los Cambodia
• Chapter 41 The Boom Boom Girls of Bien Hoa
• Chapter 42 Sometimes, you’re the HUNTER and sometimes, you’re the HUNTED
• Chapter 43 Face to Face Combat
• Chapter 44 Explosives 101
• Chapter 45 C-4 and a Lurp’s Cookout
• Chapter 46 Search for a PoW Camp
• Chapter 47 Last Chance for the Grim Reaper to Collect My Body and Soul
• Chapter 48 The Grim Reaper Collects another Soul
• Plates Section