Book three of six

The ten jobs with the worst odds in Vietnam

The Deadliest Jobs of the Vietnam War. Ten jobs, one to a chapter, and what the odds on each one actually were.

~~$35~~$19 One book, yours to keep

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168 pages
Archival photographs
Reads on any device

Why this book

The questions a documentary never has time for

Some assignments in Vietnam were far more likely to kill you than others. Tunnel rats, point men, door gunners, Dustoff crews and six more. Everybody knows the names. Almost nobody has seen the numbers, or been told plainly what the job was like from the inside.

Why the smallest man in the company was the one sent down the tunnel first, and what he took down with him.
What a point man watched for, step by step, and how long men usually lasted walking it.
What the odds really were, job by job, taken from unit records and official compilations rather than from the movies.
Why a door gunner stood in an open doorway with nothing in front of him, and what that seat cost him.
Why unarmed Dustoff crews flew into fire that gunships would not enter, and how often they came back.
What the men who came home carried out of these jobs, and for how long they carried it.

What is inside

Ten chapters, ten jobs

Each chapter takes one job and stays with it: how a man ended up there, what the work was hour by hour, what the odds were, and what happened to the men afterwards.

One
Tunnel rats
The men who went into the ground first, with a pistol and a flashlight.
Two
Walking point
The man out in front of everyone, reading the ground for the whole column.
Three
Door gunners
An open doorway, a machine gun, and no cover at all.
Four
Huey pilots
Flying into a hot landing zone because the men on the ground had no one else.
Five
Dustoff crews
Unarmed medical evacuation, into places gunships would not go.
Six
Medics and corpsmen
The man who ran towards the wounded while everyone else got down.
Seven
LRRPs
Six men, days out, deep in country that belonged to somebody else.
Eight
Snipers
The patience the job needed, and what it did to the men who were good at it.
Nine
River rats
Brown water, narrow canals, and boats that could not turn around.
Ten
The ordinary rifleman
The job most men actually had, and why the odds on it are the ones that shock people.

On the record

Every chapter closes with the sources it was built from

This is researched narrative history, not testimony. No interviews were conducted for it, no dialogue has been reconstructed, and no first-person account appears in it that is not attributed to a named published source. It was written from published and public record sources: government archives, unit records, oral history collections and published memoirs. Those sources are listed at the end of the chapter that used them, with their dates, and gathered again in the bibliography at the back, so you can go from any page to the records behind it and read them for yourself. Where the sources disagree, the disagreement is printed rather than resolved.

The photographs are genuine archival records: official United States government works from the National Archives and the Naval History and Heritage Command, reproduced with their archive numbers printed in the book, and altered in nothing but tone and cropping. The cover artwork is the one exception. It is AI-generated and depicts no real person, unit, place or event.

The same research feeds the Vietnam Voices YouTube channel.

Before you buy

The things people ask

What exactly do I get, and when?

A 168-page PDF of the complete book, with the archival photographs in place. You download it on the next page, the moment the payment clears, and a copy of the link is emailed to you as well so you can come back to it later. Nothing ships and nothing waits.

Can I read it on my phone?

Yes. A PDF opens on a phone, a tablet, a laptop and most e-readers without any extra app, and you can make the text larger on any of them. You can also print it at home or at a copy shop if you would rather read it on paper.

Is this a true account, or a novel?

It is non-fiction. Every chapter is built from documented sources and closes with the list of them, so you can go and look at any of it yourself. Nothing in it is invented and nobody in it is a composite.

I am not a military reader. Will I follow it?

Yes. It is written at ground level for readers with no military background. Where a term or a piece of equipment matters, it is explained on the spot rather than left to a glossary.

What if the file will not open, or I never get the email?

Write to us and it gets fixed, or refunded. A failed delivery, a duplicate charge or a file that will not open is always put right. Read the refund policy.

The book

Read it tonight

Ten jobs, one to a chapter. The odds as the records actually record them, the men as the sources actually describe them, and a list at the end of every chapter of where all of it came from.

~~$35~~$19 One book, yours to keep

Get the book now

Secure checkout by Stripe. Your PDF downloads the moment you pay, and the link is emailed to you as well. Because delivery is immediate, the EU 14-day withdrawal right does not apply once your download begins. Read the refund policy.

Secure Stripe checkout
Instant download
PDF, reads on any device

The line

The rest of the line

Six books in all: two guided journals a veteran fills in himself, and four histories of the war he came home from. All six are finished and on sale, each one a PDF you download the moment you buy it.