Fighting Viet Cong in the Rung Sat: Memoir of a Combat Advisor in Vietnam, 1968-1969

by Bob Worthington

Overview

The Vietnam War was not going well in 1968. The January Tet Offensive—a tactical defeat but strategic victory for North Vietnam—showed the U.S. military and the American public that the enemy remained determined, no nearer defeat. Americans grew war weary while politicians and military leaders could not agree on how to win or how to withdraw. Between combat tours, the author served as a U.S. Army company commander—a job he came to despise. Experiencing what he perceived as a degradation in the Army's senior command, he resigned his commission. Yet he needed money to complete graduate school and volunteered to return to Vietnam as a combat advisor. This memoir describes his participation in the fiercest fighting of the war, on the Cambodian border, where he almost died of hookworm and was shot in a night operation. In Saigon to recuperate, he was tasked with creating an advisory team to train South Vietnamese commandos to conduct raids in the swamps south of Saigon, the Rung Sat Special Zone. For seven months they were successful, with Worthington receiving seven combat decorations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476679419
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	10/29/2021
Pages:	283
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.57(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Bob Worthington is a retired Army officer with 15 years in the infantry and special operations and 10 years as a clinical psychologist. He is also a retired university professor, having taught psychology, business and journalism, and an award-winning writer of 2600+ publications. He lives in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Preface 1

1 Cambodian Border, November 1968, Second Tour 5

2 January 1967, Back Home from First Vietnam Tour 7

3 Moving into Fort Benning 18

4 Basic Combat Training Company Commander 27

5 Vietnam, Second Time Around 51

6 Combat Flying in Vietnam: Low and Slow 61

7 Flight to Bao Trai 68

8 District Senior Advisor at Trang Bang 74

9 Combat Operations in Trang Bang 92

10 Overnight Operations in Trang Bang 110

11 Dying in the Morgue 115

12 More Combat Around Trang Bang 121

13 Firefly Missions 135

14 Being Promoted for Doing a Good Job as DSA 146

15 Duty in Saigon: What a Way to Fight a War 152

16 Moving to the Rung Sat Special Zone 171

17 Training RF Company 117 for Commando Raids 183

18 Combat Operations Against the Viet Cong 198

19 Attack on a Major Viet Cong Base Camp 210

20 R&R in Hawaii 221

21 Chieu Hoi 228

22 Sailors and Hand Grenades 236

23 Leaving Vietnam 248

24 Leaving Active Duty 257

Epilogue 265

Bob Worthington Military History 267

Index 271

Editorial Reviews

Silver Medal, Memoir/Biography—Military Writers Society of America

From the Publisher