We Answered the Call
A Novel
by
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The Vietnam veteran saw horrific combat, just as his fathers and uncles did in Korea and World War II. Guerilla warfare was new to the American combat soldier in Vietnam. It was the first war fought with the cavalry arriving via waves of choppers - the H-1 Hueys that became synonymous with the war in Vietnam. Men serving in Vietnam comprised the most educated force ever known to the U.S. Military. Still, there were questions. Why were we there? Who were we fighting? The North Vietnamese, the Viet Cong, a corrupt government in the south? Answers were slow to come. Some went unanswered for years, decades even. For all the battles that raged stateside over the war in Vietnam, there was real combat on the ground in South Vietnam. Once we landed in Cam Rahn Bay and learned our assignments, nothing outside the squad or platoon mattered. We learned quickly to focus on what was most important - staying alive and keeping our brothers in arms alive. Those who fought in some of the worst areas of South Vietnam grew as close as the brothers that emerged from battles in Europe and the Pacific during World War II, the Chosin Reservoir in Korea. We survived a fierce, determined and well-trained enemy. We came home with the scars of war, both physical and mental and we endured something no other American soldier had to that point — a consistent return to combat that lasted days, weeks and months on end. There was a call to serve. We answered.
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About the Book
Scottie Berrand was not unlike many young American men in the late 1960s and early ’70s. He enjoyed cars and respected his elders, especially the men in his family who had answered the call of duty in wars dating back to the Civil and Revolutionary Wars. So when Berrand enlisted and went to Vietnam, he felt as if he were doing exactly what those who came before him did answering the call of his country.
Vietnam was a different war though. Combat was horrific, confusing, and near nonstop for the young men on the ground in Southeast Asia.
Upon returning home from a traumatic tour, Scottie struggled with the reception he and other Vietnam veterans received as well as adjustment back into civilian life.
Through the love of a woman and the reconnection with a brother, a fellow combat veteran, he was able to put the war behind him and move on.
We Answered the Call is a must read for those wanting to better understand the life of a combat veteran in Vietnam and the struggles these men endured during the war and in the decades since the war.
About the Author
Chris Brady is the son of a Vietnam veteran and author of “Remembering Firebase Ripcord” (Outskirts Press, 2015), which detailed the longest battle of the Vietnam War. “Remembering” included first-hand accounts of the combat veterans, men from the 101st Airborne Division, the last full division left by 1970, as they battled the North Vietnamese Army from March 12 through July 23, 1970, in the rugged jungles and mountainous terrain just west of the A Shau Valley in I Corps, South Vietnam.