Days of Valor: An Inside Account of the Bloodiest Six Months of the Vietnam War

In his first book, Tonsetic focuses on the battles at the start of the North Vietnamese and Vietcong Tet offensive from late January to May 1968, fought by his unit, the U.S. Army's 4th Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, which was assigned to the 199th Light Infantry Brigade. Tonsetic, who commanded an infantry company, relies heavily on evocative first-person testimony from his fellow infantrymen to paint a picture of almost nonstop combat action among his and other battalions of the 199th, which fought primarily around the cities of Bien Hoa, Long Binh and Saigon. But rather than a memoir, this is an in-the-trenches look at men in combat that tells "the stories of the men who performed the deeds of valor through their own eyes and words." In fact, Tonsetic refers to himself throughout the narrative in the third person. With its acronym-heavy use of military lingo and its focus on tactics and battle action, this book will appeal to those interested in the nuts and bolts of Vietnam War combat and in the period during which Americans killed in action reached the highest levels of the long Vietnam War. (Mar.)