Baptism, Larry Gwin
Baptism, Larry Gwin
7 Rating(s)
List: $20.99 | Sale: $14.70
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Baptism
A Vietnam Memoir

Author: Larry Gwin

Narrator: Todd McLaren

Unabridged: 13 hr 17 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/24/2015


Synopsis

A Yale graduate who volunteered to serve his country, Larry Gwin was only twenty-three years old when he arrived in Vietnam in 1965. After a brief stint in the Delta, Gwin was reassigned to the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in An Khe. There, in the hotly contested Central Highlands, he served almost nine months as executive officer for Alpha Company, 2/7, fighting against crack NVA troops in some of the war's most horrific battles.



The bloodiest conflict of all began November 12, 1965, after 2nd Battalion was flown into the Ia Drang Valley west of Pleiku. Acting as point, Alpha Company spearheaded the battalion's march to landing zone Albany for pickup, not knowing they were walking into the killing zone of an NVA ambush that would cost them 10 percent casualties.



Gwin spares no one, including himself, in his gut-wrenching account of the agony of war. Through the stench of death and the acrid smell of napalm, he chronicles the Vietnam War in all its nightmarish horror.

About Larry Gwin

Larry Gwin was commissioned as an infantry lieutenant out of Yale University in 1963. Gwin returned from Vietnam as a captain and taught history as an ROTC instructor at Northeastern University before leaving the army and heading to Boston University Law School in 1968. He has written more than eighty-five published pieces, taught at the prep school and college levels, and commenced an arbitration practice.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Glen

A Yale grad enlists and finds himself in a position of authority in Vietnam. He screws up as much as anyone else. Maybe the Ivy League has been overrated for a long time. Very gruesome in parts.......more

Goodreads review by Steve

This is a very good memoir by a line infantry officer who spent most of his tour as a Company XO. It is told in a very straightforward matter of fact style, without pretension or exaggeration. The author served with 2/7th Cavalry between the first US main unit commitment in 1965 through till 1966. H......more

Goodreads review by Joshua

This is a great story of one man's tour of duty in Vietnam. The author, Larry Gwin, was an officer in Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry from 1965 to 1966, at the very beginning of the "big war" phase of America's involvement in Vietnam. His account of what happened to the 2/7th Cavalry, in a......more

Goodreads review by Hans

I can't explain it, but I'm addicted to Vietnam memoirs. Possibly growing up in the military before the Gulf Wars the ghosts of Vietnam still had a presence in the US Military all the way up to the 90's. It has always felt to me like Vietnam was the American "Coming of Age" war, when our innocence a......more

Listening to this gave me a good look into what the war in Vietnam was like. This was not my first book on the subject, having read "The things they carried" and "Matterhorn" before this one. Having actually served in the US Army (though in the 1990's) I had to have a strong BS filter in place while......more