Mad Minutes and Vietnam Months: A Soldier's Memoir

by Micheal Clodfelter

Overview

This thoughtful memoir recounts one man's transformation from a glory-seeking, gung-ho Kansas teenager to a weary, twice-wounded grunt who had volunteered for a second tour of duty. Enlisting in the Army in June 1964 at age 17, Micheal Clodfelter was assigned to an artillery battalion of the 101st Airborne Division and arrived at Cam Ranh Bay on July 29, 1965; on August 9, 1966, after having requested a transfer to the infantry, he was assigned to Charlie Company, 2/502nd Airborne, serving in Phu Yen and Kontum provinces. A second injury resulted in his medical evacuation from Vietnam on January 8, 1967.

Describing the intensity of "mad minutes" (the general discharge of all weapons along a defense perimeter to discourage a potential enemy attack) amid the monotony, exhaustion and horror of war, Clodfelter writes of entering "a territory from which none of us ever really returned."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786487561
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	05/13/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	253
Sales rank:	924,112
File size:	7 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Micheal Clodfelter is an active member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and the author of several books on military history. A researcher and consultant for the Dupuy Institute of Military History, he lives in Lawrence, Kansas.
Micheal Clodfelter is an active member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and the author of several books on military history. A researcher and consultant for the Dupuy Institute of Military History, he lives in Lawrence, Kansas.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     
Preface     

Maps
Vietnam Odyssey: 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (29 July 1965–31 December 1966)     
Tuy Hoa Area     
Movement of 2/502nd Infantry (1 January–30 June 1967)     
Prologue     

Part I. Redleg
1. The General Leroy Eltinge     
2. Cam Ranh Bay     
3. An Khe     
4. Operation Gibraltar     
5. Quinhon     
6. Phan Rang     
7. Tuy Hoa     
8. Phan Thiet and Nhon Co     
9. Toumorong     
10. Return to Tuy Hoa     

Part II. Grunt
11. First Mission     
12. Vung Ro Bay     
13. Operation Seward
14. Firefight
15. Night March
16. Snipers
17. An Old Man’s Ears
18. Raiders
19. Hard Core Test
20. Operation Geronimo
21. Kontum
22. Punji Stake
23. New Year’s Truce

Epilogue     
Military History of Micheal Clodfelter     
Index     

Editorial Reviews

Clodfelter’s work is a sound presentation of a grunt’s life in Nam. His war experiences force there eager to face the reality of war, to consider the meaning of it, and to realize the impact of war on America”—New Pages.

From the Publisher