This book brought back a lot of good and bad memories for me.

books:

	• Blood Trails: The Combat Diary of a Foot Soldier in Vietnam Christopher Ronnau Presidio Press, 2006 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great account of tour.

This was like being there and I loved his attention to detail and the little things he remembered.

Well written account

I selected this book over several other Vietnam accounts because I read that he had diligintly kept a diary for his year in the Nam. I have read a couple accounts that I have found difficult to believe in that they were written decades later with total recall. I spent more than 2 decades in the military and wish I had kept my flight logs, diary or notes.
The book is Dr. Ronnau's life in Nam for a year, not Rambo's. It is very well written and credible; and I am glad I selected this book. I recommend it as others have said for a realistic view of the life of an infantryman in Nam for a year.
I give it top rating.****

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This book brought back a lot of good and bad memories for me.

I was in Nam from '69 thru '70 and in the same unit so this book really brought back a bunch of memories that I thought I had long ago forgotten.
Not an easy book to put down...give yourself a bit of time to read and digest Mr. Ronnau's story.

I was with Chris that day in April 1967

A brillant and riveting account that offers a unique insight to life in the jungle of a combat infantryman. It's all true, I know because I was in Charlie company "Black Lions" from January 1967 to April 1967 when Chris was shot.
It was my platoon, 3rd platoon, that was hit that day. The first two men were hit by pellets from a large Chinese mine that exploded before them. The screams still remain fresh in my mind. The concussion from the explosion was so great that it knocked the 3rd man in the formation, Battles, off his feet and he rolled into me. Then all hell broke loose and the fire fight went on for what seemed like minutes, but was actually over two hours. Chris's 1st platoon came to our rescue. Sometime during the end of the fighting, I was out in an open field and saw this soldier coming towards me in huge distress. He couldn't talk, a bullet had shattered his jaw, and he keeped running his hand around his head. It was Chris and I was able to help him. Didn't see him again till 1994.

Fred Kirkpatrick
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Blood Trails

I served at the same base camp as the author of this book and I can tell you from first hand experience that this book is an accurate acount of the combat that occured in that area. This is the real thing! It is the only authentic book I have read about combat in Vietnam. It is well written and has a great suprise ending.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

BAPTISM BY FIRE

Chris Ronnau volunteered for the Army and was sent to Vietnam in January 1967, armed with an M-14 rifle and American Express traveler?s checks. But the latter soon proved particularly pointless as the private first class found himself in the thick of two pivotal, fiercely fought Big Red One operations, going head-to-head against crack Viet cong and NVA troops in the notorious Iron Triangle and along the treacherous Cambodian border near Tay Ninh.

Patrols, ambushes, plunging down VC tunnels, search and destroy missions?there were many ways to drive the enemy from his own backyard, as Ronnau quickly discovered. Based on the journal Ronnau kept in Vietnam, Blood Trails captures the hellish jungle war in all its stark life-and-death immediacy. This wrenching chronicle is also stirring testimony to the quiet courage of those unsung American heroes, many not yet twenty-one, who had a job to do and did it without complaint?fighting, sacrificing, and dying for their country.

Includes sixteen pages of rare and never-before-seen combat photos

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