"Fasten your seatbelt before reading..."

"THE RESCUE OF STREETCAR 304"---A Navy Pilot's Forty Hours on the Run in Laos by Kenny Wayne Fields
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Other Websites with a Combat Survival Theme....Recommended Read

www.videoexplorers.com The host is Gary Bain, a retired Marine F-4 Phantom and AV-8 Harrier pilot.  Gary flew 213 combat missions in Vietnam and has ejected from three different planes. One occurred near Tchepone, Laos, about ten miles north of where Streetcar 304 went down, and Gary landed in a similarly hot area---active with enemy troops.

 

Gary is writing a book which will describe all three ejections and the aftermath of each but, in the interim, his website has a short story about each of them.  Any reader interested in air combat...evasion and rescue...and FACs and Jolly Greens will find Gary's short stories both emotional and exciting.

 

For info, Gary's brother, Darrell Bain is former Army in Vietnam, and he is an award winning author having won several "Eppie Awards" for his sci-fi books...some in e-book form.  If you like sci-fi, check out Darrell's website at www.darrellbain.com  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dan Guenther...Marine...author

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 Gary Bain, with his backseater....
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
www.danguenther.com  The host is Dan Guenther... He was a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps and has extensive combat action experience...boots on the ground in Vietnam, Thailand and Laos.
 
Dan's "Lost Vietnam Trilogy" of books is based on his combat experiences in Southeast Asia, and his work has been praised for its realism and for its understanding of men in combat, leadership issues and lyrical nature writing. 
 
Dan has stories to tell about his time in "amtracks" and with "sog" so, if you have never read a book about Marines in action in Vietnam...his "Dodge City Blues" novel is a great place to start. My amazon.com review follows.
 
Dodge City Blues is very appropriate for the title, March 23, 2009
I'm a former Navy A-7 carrier pilot and I flew 139 missions during the Vietnam War but this is the first "grunt" book about that war that I have read front to back...because it was that spellbinding.

The author quickly develops his story line and main character, Lt.Sam Gatlin, to the point where you start to perceive that the entire story can't be fiction. At the end, it was my sense that much of the story had to be true because the action scenes were so vivid and intense that only a Marine who had encountered very similar true combat action could have written this story. The author could not have concocted the entire story....It's that good...and I came away with a sense that, "sadly, this was the way it really was for grunts in Vietnam ".

The language is graphic...the action is bloody...the day to day struggle by front line units with alcohol and drugs is revealing to an aviator...and Lt. Gatlin's mental state is alarming at times. The heroic Marines in this story aren't the standard issue type that an aviator like myself had envisioned fighting a war for country and so that part did indeed make me feel "blue" at the end. It made me have much more compassion for those grunts who waged war with inadequate support from the chain of command, and none from back home.

Dodge City Blues is a book to be read slowly so that you totally absorb the strength and weakness of each hero, and each wannabe one. And, be prepared to handle the philosophical nuances of Lt. Gatlin as he wages war in his head and against the enemy.