Inside Sleeve Description:

"The monsoon winds swirling up from the South China Sea had doubled in magnitude as Marine Staff Sergeant Mike Sullivan stood on the roof of the American Embassy, watching North Vietnamese artillery pound Saigon's Airport. It was late in the afternoon of April 19, 1975, and for the past eight days the airstrip had been the busiest in the world as flight after flight of United Stated cargo place ferried Vietnamese refugees, American civilians, and soldiers of both countries to safety while 150,000 North Vietnamese troops marched on the city. With Saigon now encircled and the airport bombed out, thousands were trapped. ........ "

This book is about the brave Marines and officers who were the last ones to leave Vietnam at the end of the war.

With thousands of refugee's and personnel that needed to, at the bombing of the airport, be suddenly air lifted out with helicopters running hundreds of trips back and forth from the Embassy and the Naval ships in the South China Sea, in an operation called 'Frequent Wind'

My Thoughts:
I wanted to read this book, as I've become more interested in the Vietnam war as my Grandfather is still MIA as a United States Air Force officer.

From what I had already known or been told, the Vietnam war was one of the biggest, if not THE biggest mistake in American History.
It sounds as though we, as a country, were cocky going into the war, the manpower and the breadth of our armies and strengths, clearly getting to the decision makers heads.
It appears as though, from the moment we entered the country, it was doomed a failure of a mission.

This book leaves no doubt to that.

The amazing story of these Marines, who are for the most part all good men, trying STILL to uphold the reputation of the USA, by getting as many people out as possible, before the North Vietnamese land on their door step.

These men are truly the epiphany of what being a Marine is all about. Respect, Honor, Love, Brotherhood, Loyalty. To The End. Simper Fi.
If your not interested in non-fiction and or war stories, not your kindof book. But it was interesting enough.

This book was a little slow in some places, it could have been that at the time I wasn't particularly patient that week, but, I found some pieces that I had to struggle to get through. Again, probably my impatience at that time.

The one thing I didn't like, was the pictures they put in the middle of the book.
The pictures themselves, are GREAT to have in the book, just not in the middle!
It has pictures of the Marines on the last helicopter and things such as that, at a point in the book where the suspense, and the doubt, of the Marines getting out of there alive is almost at it's peak. So having the pictures where they were, kindof ruined the end of the story a little bit. For those of us like me who had no clue whether they got out or not.

Still a good book though. Worth a read.

- CJ