Rangers, Green Berets, SEALs, Delta Force, LRRPs, Force Recon—and the struggle of the best and the bravest to keep America freeThey’re some of the toughest and most highly trained fighting men in the world—going where no ordinary soldier would go and doing what no ordinary soldier would dare. Outnumbered and outgunned, operating in small teams of five or six-deep in enemy territory far from help, they rely on their wits, their skills, and each other to get out alive. Blood Warriors is a penetrating, no-holds-barred account of the training, missions, and history of the military elites who mold America’s most dangerous and highly skilled warriors . . . from the navy’s SEALs and the Marine Corps’ Force Reconnaissance to the U.S. Army’s Delta Force, Rangers, and Special Forces. Here’s an in-depth look at each unit’s methods and standards: what’s required and what it takes to survive and succeed. Whether gathering intelligence, capturing prisoners, executing raids and ambushes, or just creating havoc in enemy territory, these men know that death is their constant companion—and one small misstep could mean body bags for everyone. Maybe that’s why America calls them heroes.

Blood Warriors: American Military Elites

History

Lanning, Col. Michael Lee

Military

Ballantine Books

FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, A COMPREHENSIVE AND FASCINATING CRITIQUE OF MOVIES ABOUT VIETNAM! Heroic. Brave. Daring. Until the 1960s, movies about war were good box office. That all changed with Vietnam. Since the war was unpopular and confusing -- lacking clear objectives and easily identified enemies --movie-makers, like many Americans, transferred their dislike for the conflict onto the soldier. Consequently, Hollywood produced pictures that can now be recognizes as misleading, distorted, sensationalistic, or just plain dishonest. In Vietnam at the Movies, Vietnam vet Michael Lee Lanning traces the genesis of the "war movie" from the Spanish American War all the way up to Vietnam, taking Tinseltown to task for its treatment of the Viet vet--painstakingly separating fact from the fiction, and reviewing the quality and accuracy of more than 380 films and TV movies, including: Air America * The Big Chill * Birdy * Born on the Fourth of July * Casualties of War * Coming Home * The Deer Hunter * Dogfight * Easy Rider * First Blood * For the Boys * Friendly Fire * Full Metal Jacket * Good Morning Vietnam * Hair * In Country * JFK * The Killing Fields * Lethal Weapon * Nashville * Platoon * Running On Empty * Slaughterhouse-Five * Streamers * Suspect * Swimming to Cambodia * Taxi Driver * Tender Mercies * Top Gun * Year of the Dragon * And many more! Alphabetically organized for quick and easy access, this comprehensive volume gives film audiences and VCR viewers the opportunity to understand exactly what they are watching when they see Vietnam at the movies.

Vietnam at the Movies

Reference

During his tour in Vietnam with the 199th Light Infantry Brigade, Lieutenant Lee Lanning walked the booby-trapped rice paddies of the Mekong Delta, searching for elusive Viet Cong, and later macheted his way through the triple-canopy jungle, fighting North Vietnamese Army regulars. He served as an infantry platoon leader, reconnaissance platoon leader, and company commander. He sweated, thirsted, hunted, killed. And in all those experiences, he shared the terror, boredom, rage, and excitement of countless other American soldiers. Lee Lanning's story is based an the journal he kept of his time in Nam -- an pages often mud-splattered and occasionally bloodstained. In his wards: "It was popular among many who taught to say that Vietnam 'wasn't much of a war, but it was the only war we had.' I can only add that it was enough of a war for me."

Only War We Had: A Platoon Leader's Journal of Vietnam

Asia

Vietnam was a different kind of war, calling for a different kind of soldier. The LRRPs--Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols--were that new breed of fighting man. They operated in six-man teams deep within enemy territory, and were the eyes and ears of the units they served. This is their story--of perseverence under extreme hardship and uncommon bravery--and how they carried out the war's most hazardous missions.

Inside the LRRPs: Rangers in Vietnam

Americas

Presidio Press

The author recounts his experiences as a company commander during the Vietnam War and shares his observations on the war, combat, and the responsibilities of command

Vietnam, 1969 - 1970: A Company Commander's Journal

Operating on four-to-eight-man teams, the heroic patrols of Force Recon ventured far into the very backyard of the enemy, using tacics associated more with their adversaries than with the U.S. military. They were the eyes and ears of the units they served, and their operations were marked by close combat, extraordinary bravery, and nearly unbelievable survival despite overwhelming odds.

Inside Force Recon: Recon Marines in Vietnam

Biographies & Memoirs

Stubbe, Ray W.

Leaders & Notable People

"An intimate, candid portrait of the Viet Cong/North Vietnamese Army...An absolute necessity for Vietnamese-studies collections." During the war in Vietnam, the North Vietnamese communists had to place their trust in the oldest and most reliable tool of warfare: the individual soldier; America believed that firepower, lgoistics, and technology would be sufificent for victory. The North Vietnamese won. INSIDE THE VC AND THE NVA, written by two veterans with six-and-a-half years combined experience, shows how. A Dual Main Selection of the Military Book Club

Inside the VC and the NVA

Cragg, Dan

A former army captain recounts his experiences struggling to prepare his company for combat in only eighteen months. By the author of Inside the LRRPs. Original.

The Battles of Peace

"The American sniper could be regarded as the greatest all-around rifleman the world has ever known. . . ." At the start of the war in Vietnam, the United States had no snipers; by the end of the war, Marine and army precision marksmen had killed more than 10,000 NVA and VC soldiers--the equivalent of an entire division--at the cost of under 20,000 bullets, proving that long-range shooters still had a place in the battlefield. Now noted military historian Michael Lee Lanning shows how U.S. snipers in Vietnam--combining modern technology in weapons, ammunition, and telescopes--used the experience and traditions of centuries of expert shooters to perfect their craft. To provide insight into the use of American snipers in Vietnam, Lanning interviewed men with combat trigger time, as well as their instructors, the founders of the Marine and U.S. Army sniper programs, and the generals to whom they reported. Backed by hard information and firsthand accounts, the author demonstrates how the skills these one-shot killers honed in the jungles of Vietnam provided an indelible legacy that helped save American lives in Grenada, the Gulf War, and Somalia and continues to this day with American troops in Bosnia.

Inside the Crosshairs: Snipers in Vietnam

It has been eight years since Texas Tech University fired Mike Leach, its most successful football coach ever. Double T Double Cross released two years later, exposed the backroom deals behind his dismissal. Now Double Take reveals what has happened to the participants and events since with a new introduction and afterword to the 2017 edition. Even though life has moved on for the participants in the story, there remains a keen interest in Leach and what went on in Lubbock at the end of the 2009 football season. Leach, in his fifth year as head coach at Washington State University, remains innovative and forward-looking but he has not given up in seeking justice from Texas Tech.
More than 300 people lined up for the initial release and author's signing of Double T Double Cross in the fall of 2011. Reviews, both online and in print periodicals, were extremely positive. A few of the actors--those exposed in the book for their backroom deals that led to the firing of Coach Mike Leach--threatened lawsuits. One actually followed through but the complaint never made it out of the initial filing stages. As always, the best defense against any accusation is the truth; not a single line or sentence in the original Double T Double Cross has been proven false or inaccurate.
Coach Leach and the Red Raiders had departed Lubbock heading for San Antonio on Monday, December 28, 2009, to complete preparations for the upcoming post-season bowl game to be played four days later. Upon his arrival in the Alamo City, however, Leach received a stunning telephone call from Athletic Director Myers telling him that he had been suspended from coaching duties--effective immediately--until further notice.
The team--after its spectacular 2008 year--had just completed another successful season, racking up an 8-4 record and making Mike Leach the most winning football coach in Texas Tech history. Not only had the Red Raiders, who had been un-ranked and mostly unnoted a decade before Leach took over, gained national recognition, but also they had done it in a style that old-school proponents of the game said could not be done. Coach Leach had had the vision, and his players had executed it right into the Top 25 in the polls. The Raiders had been flying in more ways than just on planes.
Instead of working on plans for the game scheduled for January 2, Leach sat alone in his hotel room awaiting a legal decision from the 99th Judicial Court in Lubbock, a ruling that would either lift or uphold his coaching suspension imposed two days before by his bosses, Texas Tech Athletic Director Gerald Myers and University President Guy Bailey.

Double T - Double Cross - Double Take: The Firing of Coach Mike Leach by Texas Tech University

Professionals & Academics

Michael Lee Lanning

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Books by Lanning, Col. Michael Lee