This book began as an idea of Tom Mercer, a fire-team leader in Company C, one of four rifle companies in the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division, in South Vietnam. It was through his actions many years later that this book began taking shape. These stories are by and about some of the men who served in “Charlie Company.” It is not a history of the policies that led to the American intervention in Vietnam nor is it a history of the strategies and military campaigns undertaken. Instead it describes these soldiers’ experiences as remembered some 40 years ago afterward. Their stories underscore a central fact-the United States sent very good men to Vietnam and they fought very well.
