Days of Valor: An Inside Account of the Bloodiest Six Months of the Vietnam War

by Robert Tonsetic

Book Overview

The 199th Light Infantry Brigade was created from three U.S. infantry battalions of long lineage as a fast reaction force to place in Vietnam. As the book begins, in December 1967, the brigade has been at war for a year, and many of its battered 12-month men are returning home. The Communists seem to be in a lull, and the brigade commander requests a transfer to a more active sector, just above Saigon. Through January the battalions sense increasing...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1935149385
• ISBN13: 9781935149385
• Release Date: November 2010
• Publisher: Casemate
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Days of Valor including my personal experience

I believe this book to be a pretty accurate account of the battle on Dec 6, 1967. I am personally mentioned (PFC Allen Oakes) in chapter 3 along with my assistant gunner Pvt Jose Acevedo and Lt Wayne Morris. I was proud to belong to the 199th LT Infantry Brigade and the actions it took in Vietnam on behalf of all Americans. The book gives a good accounting of the 6 months it covers and I recommend it first for all members of the 199th and for people interested in the Vietnam war or for those who only have an inkling of what war is like. I would like to also say that each person's experience in this war were all different. Some saw hardly any action while others lives were forever changed by wounds, death or PTSD. Forty years after Vietnam I'm still having surgury to replace a lost nose when I was wounded in the face. At any rate this book is a must read and I thank Mr Tonsetic for giving us a place in history and the research he did to make it as accurate as possible. Allen R Oakes

Great Read

It's a shame men like these were led by the likes of Robert Mc Namara I was a medic 66-68, and with fighting men like these and many others we should have won this war. An easy read.

Can't say why it's not a bestseller

Days of Valor is a readable, believable, and just plain interesting book. Since writing "Kill Me If You Can, You SOB", I've read every book about the Vietnam War that I could get my hands on, and I liked this book because it was worldly. No attempt to catch Hollywood's attention. But that might be the reason this book, like mine, is not rushing to the top of the chart. It seems with the entire world writing books now days, a sweeping, crisply written, energetic, true life adventure is not enough. Sorry, but most of us Vietnam veterans were just your run of the mill kind of guys. While we actually did for real a lot of the things that John Wayne did in the movies, our producer and director didn't spend a lot of time on the movie set. They mostly stayed in their offices in Washington, D.C., and for some reason decided the good guys would all get killed, and the fellows in black would win. If a sad ending is not a turnoff, you will enjoy this book.

For Those Who Did Not Return

Days of Valor is a six month snapshot of the Veit Nam War and is part of the bigger picture of the events leading up to the Tet Offensive and the events following Tet. It is a mini history of the 199th Light Infantry Brigade and the men who fought during that time period. This book is an action roller coaster from start to finish. The book highlights the incredible actions, heroism, courage and valor of ordinary grunts and career soldiers of the 199th. It contains a no holds barred description of the chaos and character of the fighting in War Zone III and its major bases and cities during that time. Robert Tonsetic, the author, describes the combat experience so vividly that one can vicariously experience combat with his soldiers. The ugliness of battle with its smells, sights and sounds is graphically documented. The environment in Viet Nam with its oppressive heat, monsoon rains, humidity and terrain is vividly described. The destructiveness of the Viet Nam War on the soldiers and the country is clearly pointed out. One can vicariously experience the fatigue and sleep deprivation caused by combat and the fighting conditions of this most brutal war. Tonsetic has written a book that needed to be written about the 199th Light Infantry Brigade and its supporting units. It is a focused study of the combat, valor and heroism of men from PFC to General rank who performed their best during the most decisive American and Vietnamese Army victory of the war - the Tet Offensive. He concentrates on the strategy, command decisions and the execution in the field of officers and ordinary soldiers perfoming their duties. He does not focus on the political backdrop aganinst which these battles were fought. The author is a soldier's soldier. He is the type of leader soldiers wat to lead them into battle. While he was part of this story, he wrote it as if he was an objective observer. This is not a novel about the Viet Nam War. It is a chronicle and oral history from the author and others who fought there of what the war was like for them and those they fought with during the six months of this history. It is brutally descriptive and real. It is truth about the war. It is about the men who survived and those that died. Viet Nam veterans have been maligned by the media and so called elites for decades. Tonsetic shows by his example and in the post war accomplishments of many of the soldiers named in the book that Viet Nam combat veterans accomplish great deeds in war and in civilian life. For those of us who were there, this is a welcome addition to the real history of the Viet Nam War. For those who hold other views of the war there can be no reconciliation.

When We Won a Victory and Lost a War

The author, then a Captain and commander of a light infantry company, begins this story with a little background. Then the story covers six months beginning in December 1967. This was a quiet time, just before the Lunar New Year, called Tet. The following six months was bloody and decisive. The six month period in which Cap. Tonsetic led his unit, was a period where the Army won a victory, and lost a war. This is the story of the victory, won by young men no less heroic than their fathers in 'the greatest generation.' To a young man in combat, he hardly knows where he is, he has no idea of the bigger picture. He didn't hear the overly rosey story the senior officers were telling. He just knew that this little piece of ground, this hole in the ground was his and he would do his utmost to hold on to it. This is a story of how one small unit faired in those six months. Their colors are nor furled, and hopefully they will not be needed again, but if they are....