Lima-6; A Marine Company Commander in Vietnam, June 1967 - January 1968

New York: Atheneum, 1989. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. xvi, [4], 295, [5] pages. Illustrations. Maps. Bibliography. Index. Stamp of previous owner on fep. Colonel Richard D. Camp, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired), served 26 years in the Marine Corps before retiring in 1988. He is the author of numerous books on Marine history, including Last Man Standing: The 1st Marine Regiment on Peleliu (2009) and Devil Dogs at Belleau Wood: U.S. Marines in World War I (2008). Colonel Richard Camp entered the U.S. Marines in 1962 as an infantry officer, serving in the 1st Marine Brigade in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. He eventually served as company commander during his time in Vietnam, and would see action several times, particularly at the Battle of Khe Sanh. Colonel Camp is also an active military historian, and has written 14 fiction and non-fiction books, all of which are military-oriented. Eric M. Hammel is a military historian, with a focus on the military campaigns of the United States Marine Corps, and military action in World War II. He has been a contributing editor to Leatherneck Magazine. Since the book was written, Dick Camp retired from the Marine Corps and as a business manager in Cincinnati, Ohio...and as a Marine Corps Heritage Foundation's Vice President Museum Operations at the National Museum of the Marine Corps. He also served one year as the Acting Director of the History Division, U.S. Marine Corps. Since LIMA-6, Dick has written 12 military history books and over 100 military related articles for various magazine publications. In this vivid and intensely frank memoir, retired Marine Colonel Dick Camp recounts his daily experiences as "Lima-6" -- the commander of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines -- from June 1967 through January 1968. As much as it is about the Vietnam War, Lima-6 is also a candid account of the camaraderie that a Marine infantry company forges in battle, and the compelling human drama of an infantry company at war as seen through the eyes of a lonely leader upon whom all others depend for guidance and strength.

From the Author: I wrote LIMA-6 in conjunction with my good friend and exceptional military author Eric Hammel almost twenty years after returning from Vietnam. In the intervening years I used my experiences as a company commander to illustrate combat leadership to the officers and men I served with, first at The Basic School for junior officers and then at various assignments until my retirement in 1988. The leadership lessons I learned while in command of a rifle company stood me in good stead throughout my working life, whether it was on active service or in the civilian community. Of course, the privilege of leading young Americans in combat was the single most important event in my life...one that I will cherish as long as I live. Semper Fi, Dick Camp

From the Inside Flap: In this vividly told first-person narrative, retired Marine Colonel Dick Camp colorfully recounts the daily combat actions and command decisions of his Vietnam experience as "Lima 6"--the commander of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines--from June 1967 through January 1968. Upon his arrival in Vietnam, Captain Camp finessed his way into the immediate command of Lima Company following the death of its previous commander near Khe Sanh. Instantly, he was thrown into the tense experience of patrolling the beautiful, deadly jungle valleys along the embattled Highway 9 between Dong Ha and Khe Sanh. For six full months, Dick Camp commanded Lima Company in alternating periods of intense combat and intense waiting--a typical, virtually emblematic experience shared by his peers in the 1967-1968 phase of the war in northern Quang Tri Province, bordering the DMZ and North Vietnam. In early September 1967, Camp's battalion was almost overrun near besieged Con Thien in an ambush sprung by a full North Vietnamese Army regiment. In early January 1968, Lima Company ambushed the commander and staff of a North Vietnamese regiment apparently charged with assaulting the Marine lines at Khe Sanh. Three weeks later, Lima Company and the rest of the reinforced 26th Marine Regiment were besieged inside the Khe Sanh Combat Base by two North Vietnamese divisions. As much as LIME-6 is about fighting the Vietnam War, it is also the story of the tight camaraderie of the Marine infantry company at war--of men from widely disparate backgrounds thrown together to succeed or fail as fighting force. It is a compelling human story of an infantry company at war as seen through the eyes of its commander--the lonely man upon whom all others depend for guidance, wisdom, strength, and humor. An intensely frank, always human memoir, LIME-6 sets out to make no political or ideological points. It is a candid, refreshing narrative by a combat commander about the experience of command and the brotherhood of men at war. LIMA-6 is, above all, an honest account of life and death at the heart of the Vietnam War.
Condition: Very good / Very good.

Keywords: Marine Corps, Vietnam War, Khe Sanh, Combat Operations, Viet Cong, Dong Ha, Quang Tri, Demilitarized Zone, Con Thien, Artillery Fire Base, Matthew Caulfield, John Prince, 3rd Battalion, 26th Marine Regiment

[Book #10776]

Price: $37.50

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