Warriors: An Infantryman's Memoir of Vietnam

by Tonsetic

On the ground, in the air, and behind the lines, grunts made life-and-death decisions every day-and endured the worst stress of their young lives.
It was thetumultuous year 1968, and Robert Tonsetic was Rifle Company commander of the 4th Battalion, 12th Infantry in Vietnam. He took over a group of grunts demoralized by defeat but determined to get even. Through the legendaryTet and May Offensives, he led, trained, and risked his life with these brave men, and this is the thrilling, brutal, and honest story of his tour of duty. Tonsetic tells of leading a seriously undermanned ready-reactionforce into a fierce, three-day battle with a ruthless enemy battalion; conducting surreal night airmobile assaults and treks through fetid, pitch-black jungles; and relieving combat stress by fishing with hand grenades andtaking secret joyrides in Hueys.
During that fateful year, as unrest erupted at home and politicians groped for a way out of the war, Tonsetic and his men did their job as soldiers and earned the title"Warriors."

"From the Paperback edition."

Genres: War, Military Fiction, History, Military History

198 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Wharton Sinkler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tonsetic gives away nothing about his life after his time of service, about which I remain curious, but one fact is disclosed about his pre-induction life: after nearly dying of boredom in an engineering major, he turned to majoring in English, and it shows in this memoir. Without doubt, his account is the best written of all the Vietnam memoirs I have read. In the smaller details, he uses no jargon (except that inherent in military terms) and he finds creative ways to describe routine events. This of course makes for much more interesting reading.

Despite my expectations of reserve, his most emotional accounts are his anger and rage when the men he is responsible for are in danger, and he is not shy about breaking rules if it will result in better protection of his men; he seems to contain his anger in dealing difficult superiors.

I noted something consistent: He is not afraid to like men and trust his judgement about their capabilities; similarly at times he quickly realizes of some one 'he has to go.' He was assigned when he took over a command that he had an RTO who would have been better behinds a plow -- he quickly replaced him with the guy who drove the jeep, who became an excellent RTO, a complex and significant responsibility.

An important touch was his matching his duties with the headlines of what was going on at home: Martin Luther King's assassination; Robert Kennedy's candidacy and subsequent assassination. I lived, stateside through those times, having been born in 1938. His view of our commitment shifted slightly with each of those tectonic shifts. I also appreciated the quotes that began each chapter, each drawn from a world of literature.

A very important skill which Tonsetic demonstrated in the total structure of his memoir was his ability to match pace and drama: It wasn't until I was exhausted by the rapidity of assignments without relief that I realized he was giving me, the reader, some idea of the stresses and unrelieved strains his group and ultimately he himself had to face. Though he had worked as a lieutenant for nine months, he realizes that he was not made for war and its horrors. He asked to have a desk job (so to speak) for his last three months, which he needed to keep him from falling apart.

Having dug into my own psyche to sort out some painful things, I am in awe of Tonsetic's ability to describe in great detail what he went through, and to tell us what his emotional responses were. He relives his experience in telling it for our benefit!

I am grateful.

[Nick Ueber · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book, well written and possibly a little too detail oriented. I’ve read many Viet Nam memoirs and some go into great detail as to the battles/firefights and other give a lot of detail on directions, topography, m coordinates and the like. I have always preferred to try and understand the stress, fear, psychological experience and “nitty gritty” of the experience so I just missed enough of that in this book. Possibly, since it was written from the viewpoint of a company Commander it may have been more tactical as his responsibilities and need to understand the larger picture caused this approach. His deep felt honesty at the end of the book was very moving and gives the reader a deep look into the effect the war and day to day line leadership had on the author.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad memoir, worth a read, but I would've liked it if the author had focused less on the technical details of the battles (i.e., tactics) and more on his personal feelings and what he actually witnessed. He did include these things, but I felt the book could have been more detailed about them, because I was more interested in the nitty-gritty of what he experienced rather than the details of how and when the troops were deployed and what the overall tactics and strategies were. More first-hand accounts.

[Manuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I liked more about this book, when compared to other Vietnam War autobiographies, is that it gives a good idea of the social aspects and problematics of the conflict. Specially the leadership aspect: being a company commander he deals both with the problem of motivating enlisted man to do the job at hand and with the demands posted onto to him by battalion and brigade command.
Tonsetic also explains his motivations to join the army and how his opinion of the war changed while on the field, describes the mood in rear bases, specially the latent conflict between "grunts" and "REMF", paints an interesting picture about the sharp contrast of life-stile between company grade officers and field grade officers.
For a book based on the experiences of one individual, for a limited amount of time, it gives a remarkably good idea of the problems intrinsic to the conflict as a whole.

[Jeff Seeger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't read a lot of true war books but this one was great. Game a real inside perspective of the day to day. The subject matter was exciting but the writing was dry. It read like a debriefing report.

[Bryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Days of Valor is a better Tonsetic work.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good look at a rifle company commander in Vietnam. Tonsetic tells a good tale ending in some combat fatigue. It's a good read for those who like to do too much.

[Patrick Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this, gave me a real feel for the situation and the fact that most soldiering is sitting around being bored waiting for short periods of chaos and terror.