Steel My Soldiers' Hearts: The Hopeless to Hardcore Transformation of 4th Battalion, 39th Infantry, United States Army, Vietnam [FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING]

Hackworth, David H., Colonel (U.S. Army, Retired); England, Eilhys

Published by Rugged Land, New York, 2002

About this Item

Fine condition gray boards with a black spine and silver front cover and spine lettering, contained in a fine condition color photographic dust jacket. Includes Dedication; Prologue: Debt of Honor; Preliminary Page Quote from Henry V, Act IV, Scene I; Epilogue: Greenwich, Connecticut, 11 September 2001; Afterword: The Weakest Link; Glossary; and Acknowledgments. Illustrated with black-and-white photographic plates and map illustrated front and rear endpapers. "Colonel David H. Hackworth, one of America's most decorated soldiers, lays bare his most daring and legendary tour of duty.1966: With a full year of Vietnam combat and five months of intense in-country after-action analysis under his pistol belt, Hackworth pens the classic tactical handbook Vietnam Primer with military historian Samuel Marshall. In a radical shift from the World War II- era tactics then employed in Vietnam, Hackworth stresses the necessity of using disciplined, small units of well-rained men to best fight the hit-and-run warfare of the elusive Viet Cong. "Out-G-ing," he called his tactics. 1969: Hackworth's expertise lands him back in Vietnam. The Army's message is clear - put up or shut up. Given the "hopeless" 4/39th - an infantry battalion of poorly led draftees with one of the Army's worst casualty rates - Hackworth leads from up front and finds the best in every one of his grunts. Together they take a page from the VC, write their own book, and become the meanest in the Mekong Delta - the Hardcore Recondos. 2002: With the U.S. again facing elusive insurgent foes - and the hit-and-run tactics of the international terror networks we're presently up against - the 4/39th Hardcore Battalion's successes provide hard-won lessons-learned that are more applicable now than ever. A tour de force of front-line combat action, Steel My Soldiers' Hearts takes readers alongside sniper missions, into grunt ambush actions, above fields of the fire with hard-hitting helicopter strikes, and inside the quagmire of command politics. Hackworth graduates the Mekong Delta brotherhood into the pantheon of our nation's most heroic and effective warriors." - from the inner front jacket flap.

Seller Inventory # 003957

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Steel My Soldiers' Hearts: The Hopeless to Hardcore Transformation of 4th Battalion, 39th Infantry, United States Army, Vietnam [FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING]
• Publisher: Rugged Land, New York
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine