Mekong First Light

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Mekong First Light (eBook) Pub. Date: 12/18/2007 Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
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Mekong First Light (Reissue) Pub. Date: 3/30/2004 Publisher: Random House Publishing Group

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Overview

“Before we got to Vietnam, the troops all thought you would be the first lieutenant killed, and in the end, you were the only one left. We were all wrong. You were the best.”
—Sgt. Lonnie “Tallman” Caldwell

December, 1966: Platoon leader Lt. Joseph Callaway had just turned twenty-three when he arrived in Vietnam to lead forty-two untested men into battle against some of the toughest, most experienced, and best-trained guerrilla soldiers in the world. Callaway soon learned that most events in this savage jungle war were beyond his control. But there was one thing he could do well: take the best damn care of his troops he knew how.

In the Viet Cong–infested provinces around the Mekong Delta where the platoon was assigned, the enemy was always ready to attack at the first sign of weakness. And when the jungle suddenly erupted in the chaos of battle, the platoon leader was the Cong’s first target. Mekong First Light is at times horrific, heartrending, and heroic, but is always brutally honest. Callaway’s account chronicles a soldier’s painful realization of the true nature of America’s war in Vietnam: It was a war that could not be won.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780891418160
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Publication date: 3/30/2004
Edition description: Reissue
Pages: 272
Sales rank: 393,780
Product dimensions: 4.16 (w) x 6.80 (h) x 0.75 (d)

Meet the Author

JOSEPH W. CALLAWAY, Jr. grew up in Enterprise, Alabama, and New Canaan, Connecticut. He entered the army as a private in 1965 and, after being commissioned as an officer through Infantry OCS (Officer Candidate School), served in Vietnam from December 1966 until July 1968 as an infantry platoon leader with the 9th Division, a combat advisor to the first Thai regiment deployed to Vietnam, and as a staff officer with the 5th Special Forces. He graduated from Boston University in 1972 and is currently the western sales manager for CYRO Industries, a major chemical and plastics manufacturer. He lives in California with his loving wife, Susan, and has three sons, Tucker, Casan, and Quinn.

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Anonymous

Posted March 7, 2011

Really Not A Good Read At All

While I am grateful to Lt. Callaway for his service in Vietnam, I have to say that this book is not very well written or edited. He jumps around too much; instead of giving plenty of information about one thing, then moving on to the next, he goes from here...to here...to here...all in the course of one page. I'm trying to get through the book, but it's a struggle.
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EugeneTX

Posted July 29, 2010

more from this reviewer

I Also Recommend:

How to succeed in spite of myself

The author has put together a very readable history of his maturation both after school and prior to his service and tells how a young man can finally get a grip on life and start making significant improvement to it. He tells the many ways that he was failing in gaining meaningful focus and was simply adrift on who he was or could be. His book points out that sometimes a person can take initial steps toward dramatic change and complete the process. He attended Officer Candidate School where he learned the principles of leadership and obviously gained a sense of responsibility for the lives of others. This is no game. It is deadly serious business and failure is not an option. Failure cause men to be killed needlessly and can lead to the deaths of innocents caught between the opposing forces. He writes the book in storyteller fashion and leads you through the early days and his later successes. I enjoyed the story he related about his return and going back to his school and visiting with the friends he had known. That in itself is a really strange event and you find that you now live in a completely different world that they do not understand. This book has the flow of a story told with absolute truth. He is comfortable with his story and obviously satisfied that he gave the best he could. That is all any man can ever do. Do not miss this book. You will love it. I rated it low only on Research only because it is an original writing and research was not and is not required. This is a great book.
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Anonymous

Posted August 28, 2006

Excellent Reading!

This book tells it exactly as it was. From all of the movies or books I have read about Vietnam this is the best! Very detailed!
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Posted July 27, 2010

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