Ripcord: Screaming Eagles Under Siege, Vietnam 1970

As a print journalist, I've used my position at times to tell the stories of veterans who might not otherwise be heard.I'll never forget my reaction when I walked into the newsroom one day in May and our managing editor said someone had left a new book about Vietnam on my desk.It was "Ripcord." A local man who survived the battle wanted to publicize the book and the Fire Support Base Ripcord Association's upcoming 30th anniversary reunion.As an avid amateur Vietnam historian, I immediately realized I was looking at the answer to a prayer.One of the first books I ever read about the war was also one of the best - John Del Vecchio's novel "The 13th Valley," a fictional account of the 101st Airborne's lonely struggle in I Corps near the end of America's ground combat role in Vietnam.For the next decade and a half, I searched in vain for more substantial information about what happened in western I Corps while the world's attention was focused on the Cambodia invasion and the Kent State shootings.One look at the full title - "Ripcord: Screaming Eagles Under Siege, Vietnam 1970" - and I realized Nolan had delivered the goods for me.For a journalist, there's nothing like realizing you have a chance to write about a subject of tremendous personal interest - in this case, the fact that someone finally told the long-overdue story of a hugely important but virtually unknown battle in this most misunderstood of wars.Others have said the 1965 battle for the Ia Drang Valley and the 1970 Ripcord siege are the "bookends" that define the beginning and the effective end of the American grunt's Vietnam experience. It could also be said that Joe Galloway's "We Were Soldiers Once, and Young" and "Ripcord" are appropriate literary "bookends" that chronicle these important battles and vividly illustrate how the daily struggle of the grunt changed over those fateful five years."Ripcord" will eventually prove an indispensable volume toward understanding the military history of America's Southeast Asia experience.

Dang! This is one helluva battle history. Right on the money, accurate and with plenty of action to go around. If there's a better story out there about the Vietnam War, let me know ... I'll buy you a beer.Keith Nolan is in top form ... best book he's done yet, and he's done a lot.So what's it all about? Ripcord was the last big battle of the war involving purely American forces. Lam Son 719 came the next year ... featured ARVN and U.S. forces. You want guts and glory? This is it! A division of North Vietnamese regulars surround Fire Base Ripcord on the northeast rim of the dreaded A Shau Valley, put it under siege, and prepare to make a ground assault. U.S. airmobile troopers of the 101st fight back, but are committed piecemeal to the action. No one knows what's really going on until the last fateful days of the battle. By then it's too late.Courage? It's here in spades. Medal of Honor awardee Lt. Col. Andre Lucas is killed on the final day. He's a hero worth remembering. So is the Battle of FSB Ripcord ... so is this book.Read it. Remember those who fell there.

"I've never read a better account of a battle," said Stephen Ambrose about Keith W. Nolan's just published book, Ripcord. There are many perceptions of the Vietnam War and probably even more misperceptions. Nolan gives it to you straight. After writing nine books about the Vietnam War, Nolan said, "I have never encountered a Vietnam battle as dramatic, tragic, convoluted, and bewildering as Ripcord." Over a three year period of intense research, Nolan conducted hundreds of interviews via mail, email, telephone and in person. Thousands of doucments were checked in the National Archives.As the brigade commander during the seige of Ripcord, Keith and I had dozens of interchanges. It is common knowledge that retired general officers can recall with precise clarity the details of events that never happened. Nolan's rule that "facts" must be verified by at least three sources probably explains why some of my input to an early draft did not make the final publication. My long-winded point is that you do not have the "whole story" of Ripcord, but what you do have in this superb book is true and accurate.What gives me the most genuine gratification with this book is Keith Nolan's telling the individual stories of 356 real soldiers! Shocking, heartbreaking, inspiring; these stories help you to understand the outrage of General Eisenhower when he blasted a war correspondent saying, "I get so eternally tired of the lack of understanding of what the infantry soldier endures.....I get so fighting mad because of the general lack of appreciation of real Heroism which is the uncomplaining acceptance of unendurable conditions...."This book is not about the Vietnam War. It is about but one battle of four and a half months in a ten year war by one brigade of the twenty four American brigades who fought in Vietnam. It is about conventional, not guerilla-conterinsurgency war. The enemy at Ripcord were uniformed regulars from North Vietnam that outnumbered us at least six to one; well supported with heavy mortars, heavy machine guns, recoiless rifles and rocket propelled grenades.You will be saddened by this book, as was I. But you will also be filled with absolute and total pride in the young Americans who answered their country's call to duty and fought and bled and some died, but most persevered in the finest traditions of the American military forces.

As a former member of the 101st Airborne stationed in the northern province of Vietnam (I Corps) in 1970-1971, I read Mr. Nolan's account with extreme interest. The July 1970 siege at Firebase Ripcord was indeed the last great battle of the Vietnam War for American forces and one of the bloodiest of the entire conflict. The author spares no one in his quest for the truth concerning this event, but lets the reader ultimately decide as to who was truly responsible for this full-fledged military disaster. Yet even through the manic chaos of this bitter struggle, Nolan goes out of his way to recognize the astounding bravery and heroism demonstrated by the "Screaming Eagles" under the most dire circumstances. The Vietnam War is usually glossed over in little more than half a page in today's high school and college history books. For anyone who desires further knowledge of the war, Mr. Nolan's well-researched work would be a great place to start. His eyewitness resources not only gives readers a thorough understanding of the horrors of war, but nearly places them in the line of fire. Hopefully, this book will also put to rest the common view that nothing of any consequence happened in Vietnam after 1969. Because of Mr. Nolan's efforts, the epic and memorable battle that was "Ripcord" will be remembered.

I've read most of Keith William Nolan's books, provided source information on two of them, and was a key participant in the Battle of Fire Support Base Ripcord. This obvious bias aside, "Ripcord" is Nolan's best and most comprehensive Vietnam battle history.Nolan is a master at telling the soldier's part in the 23-day siege of this remote rain forest mountain redoubt near the A Shau Valley. But it's not just a story about the hardship and heroism of combat soldiers. He unravels and clearly presents the challenges (and frustrations) of command from the division level down to leadership at the squad and platoon level.The Battle of FSB Ripcord was a complex and deadly affair. One of two book-end battles of the Vietnam War--the other was the airmobile action by the 1st Cavalry Division at Ia Drang Valley in 1965--Ripcord pitted airmobile troopers of the 3d Brigade, 101st Airborne Division against North Vietnamese regulars that had surrounded the fire base in division strength. Nolan pulls no punches in describing the action.Quoting 1st Lt. Fred Edwards of the 326th Engineer Battalion, Nolan writes: "I was returning to Ripcord when I realized that the firebase was no longer an earthy brown, but almost black. Mortar rounds had exploded on virtually every square foot of the hill, charring it into a gray-black heap. It looked evil, malevolent. When the helicopter landed, it was like being dropped into an absolute hellhole."Ripcord was more costly than the division action at Dong Ap Bia (Hamburger Hill) the year prior. Because the Screaming Eagle withdrawal from the base succeeded magnificently and did not turn into a rout, the action went largely unreported at the time. Thus, many participants in the battle had little idea of the depth or scope of the overall combat in which they were so intimately involved. Nolan's book does a great service to all these men by clarifying what went on and the contributions they made individually and collectively to the division's efforts.Like most American military historians Nolan is more qualitative than quantitative, more gut-level than analytical in his recounting of events. Analytical comparisons can help with perspective. At the start of the siege the average bomb tonage from air strikes against enemy positions was less than 5 tons per day; but on the last three days the bomb tonage climbed from 104 tons to 154 tons. Eighty-four fighter-bomber sorites engaged the enemy in a 12-hour period on the final day. In the midst of this cauldron of fire soldiers from both sides fought, died and struggled for their very survival. Few came away unscathed.This book is a must for any serious student of the Vietnam War, and will be a worthy addition to the bookshelves of military history buffs everywhere.