The Boys of '67: Charlie Company's War in Vietnam

By Andrew Wiest

‘compelling…  a fine blend of military and social history, sympathetic, well-written but analytically rigorous’
(Professor Gary Sheffield,  BBC History Magazine  Best Books of the Year 2012)

When the 160 men of Charlie Company (4th Battalion/47th Infantry/9th ID) were drafted by the US Army in May 1966, they were part of the wave of conscription that would swell the American military to 80,000 combat troops in theater by the height of the war in 1968. In the spring of 1966, the war was still popular and the draftees of Charlie Company saw their service as a rite of passage. But by December 1967, when the company rotated home, only 30 men were not casualties—and they were among the first vets of the war to be spit on and harassed by war protestors as they arrived back the U.S.
 
In his new book, The Boys of ’67, Andy Wiest, the award-winning author of Vietnam’s Forgotten Army and The Vietnam War 1956-1975, examines the experiences of a company from the only division in the Vietnam era to train and deploy together in similar fashion to WWII’s famous 101st Airborne Division.
 
Wiest interviewed more than 50 officers and enlisted men who served with Charlie Company, including the surviving platoon leaders and both of the company’s commanders. (One of the platoon leaders, Lt Jack Benedick, lost both of his legs, but went on to become a champion skier.) In addition, he interviewed 15 family members of Charlie Company veterans, including wives, children, parents, and siblings. Wiest also had access to personal papers, collections of letters, a diary, an abundance of newspaper clippings, training notebooks, field manuals, condolence letters, and photographs from before, during, and after the conflict.
 
As Wiest shows, the fighting that Charlie Company saw in 1967 was nearly as bloody as many of the better publicized battles, including the infamous ‘Ia Drang’ and ‘Hamburger Hill.’ As a result, many of the surviving members of Charlie Company came home with what the military now recognizes as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder—a diagnosis that was not recognized until the late 1970s and was not widely treated until the 1980s. Only recently, after more than 40 years, have many members of Charlie Company achieved any real and sustained relief from their suffering. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781780968940

Andrew Wiest

Dr Andrew Wiest is University Distinguished Professor of History and the founding director of the Dale Center for the Study of War & History at the University of Southern Mississippi. Specializing in the study of World War I and Vietnam, he has served as a Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst and as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Warfighting Strategy in the United States Air Force Air War College. Since 1992 Dr Wiest has been active in international education, developing the award-winning Vietnam Study Abroad Program. Wiest's titles include Vietnam's Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN (New York University), which won the Society for Military History's Distinguished Book Award, Rolling Thunder in a Gentle Land (Osprey), and The Boys of '67 (Osprey), which was the basis for the Emmy nominated National Geographic Channel Documentary Brothers in War. He lives in Hattiesburg, Mississippi with his wife Jill and their three children Abigail, Luke, and Wyatt.

Reviews for The Boys of '67

[bcquinnsmom · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Boys of '67 briefly but powerfully examines the lives of a group of men from Charlie Company in the US Army's 9th Infantry Division -- from the time they received their greetings from Uncle Sam through their individual returns home and beyond. It is a fine addition to the already-existing collection of personal histories of the war, focusing largely on the special bonds forged between these former strangers throughout their year in Vietnam.The book is the result of author interviews with several surviving members of Charlie Company, as well as their families and the families of some of those who went to Vietnam and never returned.The personal accounts of these men or their surviving families -- the letters, the interviews, etc., -- are what make this book. The author presents these people not only as the fine soldiers they were, but also as human beings who suffered from serious psychological trauma both in Vietnam and afterwards. While highly personal, there is also insight into just what types of situations these men faced there via several accounts of the battles they fought, complete with tactical maps that give the reader a harrowing visual perspective on what these soldiers faced during their missions.The Boys of '67 is emotionally powerful and if you're at all interested in the Vietnam war and its personal aftermath from the points of view of the soldiers who were there, this would be a great reading choice. Definitely recommended.read September 2012

[deaconbernie · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

For more than 3/4 of this book, it was routine but very well done. You grew to meet many soldiers, their needs, their strong and weak points, and their expectations fro when they returned The shameful way some treated when they returned home needs to be told and re-told. I met a few of those people as the war progressed and I admit I had no understanding of their point of view. I finally settled on nihilists. It was in the last quarter of this book that makes it so special. Mr Wiest tells us about about how these troopers tried to fit back into their pre-army days. This part is extraordinary, and it is where I found the entire worth of the book. Viet Nam covered about half my middle age but I had heard nothing about the troops came to be ministers to each other. Not all of the broken lives were repaired but many found the bottom and began to climb back when they gathered with each other. To best of my recollection, this part of the story has never been told and I thank Mr. Wiest for doing so.