This book began twenty years ago as a few paragraphs of remembrances written for my father (a retired Army officer) and for my sons (Sandy had heard all my war stories). I would not have been able to flesh out those paragraphs into a book without the help of my letters home. These letters filled in the when and the where and provided many forgotten episodes of my days as the senior advisor of the 36th Vietnamese Ranger Battalion and a company commander and staff officer in the 199th Light Infantry Brigade. The numerous quotations from the letters capture the humorous moments, the exhilaration, the occasional sorrow, and the optimistic can-so attitude of a young captain in combat.
