The Odyssey of Echo Company, Doug Stanton
The Odyssey of Echo Company, Doug Stanton
32 Rating(s)
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The Odyssey of Echo Company
The 1968 Tet Offensive and the Epic Battle to Survive the Vietnam War

Author: Doug Stanton

Narrator: CJ Wilson

Unabridged: 8 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/19/2017


Synopsis

SELECTED BY MILITARY TIMES AS A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR * SELECTED BY THE SOCIETY OF MIDLAND AUTHORS’ AS THE BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR

The New York Times bestselling author of In Harm’s Way and Horse Soldiers shares the powerful account of an American army platoon fighting for survival during the Vietnam War in “an important book….not just a battle story—it’s also about the home front” (The Today show).

On January 31, 1968, as many as 100,000 guerilla fighters and soldiers in the North Vietnamese Army attacked thirty-six cities throughout South Vietnam, hoping to dislodge American forces during one of the vital turning points of the Vietnam War. Alongside other young American soldiers in an Army reconnaissance platoon (Echo Company, 1/501) of the 101st Airborne Division, Stanley Parker, the nineteen-year-old son of a Texan ironworker, was suddenly thrust into savage combat, having been in-country only a few weeks. As Stan and his platoon-mates, many of whom had enlisted in the Army, eager to become paratroopers, moved from hot zone to hot zone, the extreme physical and mental stresses of Echo Company’s day-to-day existence, involving ambushes and attacks, grueling machine-gun battles, and impossibly dangerous rescues of wounded comrades, pushed them all to their limits and forged them into a lifelong brotherhood. The war became their fight for survival.

When they came home, some encountered a bitterly divided country that didn’t understand what they had survived. Returning to the small farms, beach towns, and big cities where they grew up, many of the men in the platoon fell silent, knowing that few of their countrymen wanted to hear the stories they lived to tell—until now. Based on interviews, personal letters, and Army after-action reports, The Odyssey of Echo Company recounts the searing tale of wartime service and homecoming of ordinary young American men in an extraordinary time and confirms Doug Stanton’s prominence as an unparalleled storyteller of our age.

About Doug Stanton

Doug Stanton is the author of the New York Times bestsellers In Harm’s Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors and Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan, which is the basis for a Jerry Bruckheimer–produced movie by the same name, starring Chris Hemsworth and Michael Shannon, to be released by Warner Bros. in 2018. He attended Hampshire College and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, Time, The Washington Post, Men’s Journal, The Daily Beast, Newsweek, Esquire, and Outside, where he has been a contributing editor. Stanton is a founder of the National Writers Series, a year-round book festival, and lives in his hometown of Traverse City, Michigan, with his wife, Anne Stanton, and their three children, John, Katherine, and Will.


Reviews

Goodreads review by David on January 26, 2018

As I've read many books and watched movies around the subject of Vietnam, it is difficult to compare them because of their inequality of experiences. Each person's story is their own and in "The Odyssey of Echo Company", author Doug Stanton features multiple perspectives on their experiences during......more

Goodreads review by David on January 29, 2020

Highly recommended, this book is a thoughtful and highly readable meditation on the life of Stan Parker before he enlisted to fight in Vietnam, his transformation as a soldier and his struggle to make sense of himself after his discharge. There are vivid and graphic descriptions of combat but this i......more

Goodreads review by Alexw on March 09, 2023

Graphic war scenes detailing the incredible death-defying luck of Stan who had enemy grenades at his feet that didn't explode. The 2014 return soul healing to Vietnan was also fascinating.......more

Goodreads review by Jeff on February 12, 2025

Probably an amazing story if it was told 100% truthfully, but unfortunately, many of the events felt embellished.......more

Goodreads review by Connor on November 19, 2023

The Odyssey of Echo Company follows the story of Stan Parker, an Airborne soldier who fought in the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War. A good bulk of the story revolves around Parker's day-to-day life during the offensive, with background information on his life before and after the war sprinkled......more