I Served

[10], v, [3], 566, [24] pages. Decorative front cover. Illustrations. Tabular Data. Glossary. Afterword. Photographs. Map. No dust jacket present Large red and gold fabric bookmark laid in Signed with sentiment by both authors on the Dedication page. The inscription reads We appreciate your interest in our story. Don C. Hall, Annette Hall. Don C. Hall, former team leader in F/51st LRP, served as a police officer in Southwest Virginia after leaving the military in 1970, and then worked as a private investigator for such companies as Boeing and Alaska Airlines, and for large insurance companies and private attorneys. Annette R. Hall worked for many years at Microsoft, where she gained extensive experience working with computer graphics and managing content. Annette designed and produced the book, plus all the I SERVED promotional materials. LRSC or LRRP is an Airborne Infantry Company with the specific mission of going in first, and gaining human intelligence on the area that friendly forces are getting ready to go into. These units are composed of teams, which average 6 men, a Team Leader, an Assistant Team Leader, two Scout-Observers, and a Primary and an Assistant RTO. These teams are inserted by parachute or helicopter, up to 50 kilometers behind the lines, and do their best to remain unobserved. These units are often assigned or attached to Military Intelligence Units. F Company 51st LRRP served in the Republic of Vietnam with the famous Americal Division, and in December 1968 was re-designated Company G, 75th Infantry (Ranger). They participated in 5 campaigns. This description of I SERVED was written by Command Sergeant Major Jeff Mellinger (U.S. Army, retired). I SERVED is a first-person account of the lonely childhood and manhood rites of passage of a Catholic orphanage schoolboy and plankholder in Company F, 51st Long Range Patrol (Airborne) Infantry. From separation from most of his siblings, to harsh life in an orphanage in Virginia, to the dank jungles of Viet Nam, and finally to homecoming and marriage to his childhood sweetheart, Don Hall keeps us on edge. Unceremoniously dumped in the orphanage by their drunken, war-traumatized father, Don and his brother Mike learn the harsh realities of life. We can feel the fear of the tormented child and smell the antiseptic dormitory. Not all is bad there, for it is during this time that the young Donald sees his true love, Annette, for the first time. Her brunette hair, twinkling eyes and heart-melting smile are what help sustain the warrior’s sanity and focus during some of his darkest moments, which are yet to come. Don was a "malcontent renegade" in the eyes of the nuns, because he fought for his dignity and that of his brother. Recalcitrant, yet gregarious, Don is dismissed from the orphanage with his brother, and returned to the father who had abandoned them. No hope for the future leads the seventeen-year-old boy, old beyond his years, to a recruiter’s office and the Army. In August 1967, after a tour in Alaska and six months in Germany, the young paratrooper volunteers for duty in the Republic of Vietnam and is initially assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade. Then, he hears a call for volunteers and joins a new long range patrol unit being formed, with the motto "I Serve," and the charter of taking the war to the enemy. Expertly weaving heart-thumping moments as enemy soldiers walk past within mere feet of patrols, the cacophony of battle and copper-taste of adrenaline during contacts, and the stark contrasts of the war, Don Hall takes us on his tour with the Lurps. We feel the anguish of losing teammates, and share the love for comrades. We see the oblivious eyes of the enemy walking toward an ambush, and the handmade wooden cross prepared by a soldier for a dead enemy tossed from a helicopter. We hear the cries of the wounded and the soft strains of songs on the radio. We feel the hurt and anger of the young boy, and the power and control of the soldier as he serv.…