Comanche Six: Company Commander in Vietnam

During four tours of duty in Vietnam between 1962 and 1973, Estep rose from sergeant to captain. A dedicated soldier, he was an accessible and understanding leader for the company, as can be seen in his view of combat: ``The death of enemy soldiers . . . produced . . . a feeling of exhilaration much like that experienced when one's high school football team scores a touchdown.'' At the same time he also reports on the horrors of war, of infantrymen cut in half by enemy fire, of a firefight in a sector littered with two-week-old decaying corpses, of leeches in every rice paddy, of the serious wound that cut short his third tour. As candid and vivid as this account is, the now-retired Estep left Vietnam puzzled by the enemy's tenacious dedication. Nonetheless an impressive. (Aug.)