A Rock in the Clouds: A Life Revisited

by Joseph R. Tedeschi

"On 4 October 1966, a C7-A Caribou airplane flying through blinding cloud cover crashed into Hon Cong Mountain near the base camp of the 1st Air Cavalry Division at An Khe. There were thirty-one people aboard the aircraft, an air crew of four along with twenty-seven passengers. Thirteen people died in the crash. I was one of the survivors."




Joe Tedeschi lives his experience with you in A Rock in the Clouds. Taking you through the life events that led to that fateful day, he describes the horror of the crash and relates the aftermath of recovering from his injuries and continuing his life as a career Army officer. As his journey reveals his faith-based purpose and destiny, he hopes to bring hope and inspiration to other Vietnam-era veterans, their families, and people of faith.




rockintheclouds.com

287 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 9, 2021

Reviews

[Military Writers Society of America (MWSA)]

MWSA Review

Wars may last for years—or even decades—but they often end in an instant for the individual soldiers who fight them. A Rock in the Clouds tells the story of one such instant, a plane crash in Vietnam that ended the author’s deployment a mere three weeks after it began. It also ended the lives of thirteen fellow service members, and the author never takes his survival for granted as he revisits the entirety of his life before, during, and after that near-death experience.

Any account of a plane crash would be harrowing, but this book’s finest feature is that the author goes beyond a first-person account and provides a painstakingly compiled record that sheds light in a way no single person could. The research also includes interesting nuggets about medical personnel he met during his recovery and, most strikingly, a picture of the airplane’s pilot with three of the sons he left behind after perishing in the crash.

The accident and its aftermath comprise the middle third of the book, with the first portion listing biographical details and the final third largely reprinting correspondence that happened during the book’s creation. Yet the central third reflects an interesting balance of personal narrative and research, with moments that provide welcome texture, sometimes in unexpected ways.

Perhaps the most resonant aspect of A Rock in the Clouds isn’t a particular section but that the book exists at all—that even a survivor whose injuries largely healed, whose military career continued successfully, and whose subsequent life has been nurtured by family, faith, and community still thinks back to a foggy Vietnam hillside in 1966, peering out of a broken fuselage, wondering what had just happened and why his right leg was stubbornly refusing to move.

Review by John McGlothlin (May 2022)

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

For Veterans, Families, and Anyone Who Believes in Something Greater
My father is a Vietnam vet and I bought this book for him, then ended up reading the whole thing myself before giving it to him. Tedeschi writes with the kind of quiet authority that comes from lived experience this isn't someone dramatizing or embellishing. The passages about recovering from his injuries while still processing the death of fellow soldiers are raw and honest. His faith doesn't make the grief disappear in this book. It just helps him carry it. One thing that could be improved is a bit more narrative flow in the middle chapters it occasionally reads more like documentation than storytelling. But the core of this book is deeply human.

[Emily Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

The relationship between Tedeschi and Maj. Bob Ray fellow West Point classmates and fellow Catholics gives this book its emotional spine. The two of them attended Mass together the morning of the crash. Both survived. That kind of coincidence, or providence depending on your view, runs through every chapter. Tedeschi is clearly a man who takes brotherhood seriously the care he puts into memorializing every person on that aircraft, not just those he knew, is remarkable. If I'm being picky, I think the book could have used a little more exploration of how the crash affected his family relationships. But that's a minor observation about a book that accomplishes a lot.

[Rebecca Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of survival stories end with the survivor getting out alive. This one begins there. What Tedeschi does with the rest of the book piecing together who was on that plane, honoring the dead, completing his military career, raising a family, becoming a deacon is the real story. His daughter's connection to the crash is one of the more unexpected and moving elements, and I don't want to spoil it for anyone. This is a 278-page book that earns every page. My only wish is that the publisher had included a map of the An Khe area it would help readers unfamiliar with Vietnam geography visualize some of the events described.

[Evan Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title is perfect "a rock in the clouds" is actual pilot terminology for hitting a solid object in zero-visibility conditions. That detail alone tells you how thoroughly researched this memoir is. Tedeschi wasn't even supposed to be on that flight. He was a passenger on a courier run when the aircraft hit the mountainside. Coming out of the wreckage, he didn't know which way was up. What follows the rescue, the full-body cast, the year of recovery, and the decades of investigation is compelling throughout. Not a fast read, but a rewarding one. A few early chapters read more like a military résumé than a memoir, but the book finds its rhythm quickly.

[Taiwo Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

At 86 years old, Col. Tedeschi still carries October 4, 1966 with him every day. You feel that on every page of this memoir. He's not writing for glory or drama he's writing because the story needed to be told, and because he felt an obligation to the 13 people who didn't come home. The memoir began, he's said, as an affidavit for another survivor's VA claim and evolved over decades into this. That origin story says a lot about who the author is. Faith, duty, and humility show up on every page. The writing occasionally has a formal tone that feels more military report than literary memoir, but given the author's background, it actually suits the material.

[Faith Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whether you're a veteran, a person of faith, or just someone who has ever survived something you didn't expect to this book will resonate. Tedeschi approaches the biggest question of his life with grace, not certainty. He doesn't claim to have the answer. He just keeps asking. The section detailing the service records of everyone who died in the crash is quietly devastating. It's a memorial built into the back pages of a memoir. My one critique is that readers looking for a purely action-driven story may find the pacing slower than expected. This is a book for reflection, not adrenaline and it's excellent at what it sets out to do.

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Why am I still here?" That's the question at the heart of everything Tedeschi writes. He was 32 years old when a C7-A Caribou flew into Hon Cong Mountain in blinding cloud cover. Thirteen people didn't walk away. He did with a badly broken hip and a question he'd spend the rest of his life trying to answer. This isn't a dramatic page-turner in the action movie sense. It's quieter than that. It's a man looking back honestly at a life shaped by one moment. If you're drawn to books about faith and purpose, this one will speak to you. I wish the early chapters on his West Point years moved a little faster, but once the narrative hits Vietnam it's gripping.

[Orpey · Rating 5 out of 5]

What really got me about this book was the detail about Tedeschi and his friend attending morning Mass with the division chaplain and then hours later both of them were in the wreckage of a downed aircraft on the side of a mountain. He spent decades trying to understand what that meant. His journey from Army colonel to deacon in the Diocese of Trenton gives this memoir a rare third act that most survival stories don't have. The faith element is woven throughout without ever feeling heavy-handed. My only minor note is that I wanted even more about his deaconate years that chapter of his life deserved more pages.

[James Readnerd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I almost passed on this one thinking it was just another Vietnam combat book. I'm really glad I didn't. Col. Tedeschi survived a plane crash on Hon Cong Mountain in 1966 that killed 13 people, and the way he writes about it not just the crash itself but the 55 years of questioning that followed is unlike anything I've read in the genre. He doesn't have all the answers, and he doesn't pretend to. That honesty is what makes this one stick. The only thing I'd say is that some readers who aren't familiar with Army structure might need to take their time in a few spots. But overall this was a genuinely rewarding read.

[F.E. Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

An alternate title to Tedeschi's book could be, "How I Found Peace after Coming Face to Face with Death".

The author returned from the Vietnam War with the same question all Vets ask, "Why him and not me"? Tedeschi does not believe in luck, his survival was due to Jesus being in the rear of the plane with him that day. The reader questions why Jesus wasn't with the 13 soldiers in the front of the plane that died.

Tedeschi, a chemical officer in charge of Agent Orange, finds peace in knowing his life was guided by Jesus. A beautiful life lead without introspection.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What sets this apart from most first-person accounts is that Tedeschi actually spent decades tracking down other survivors, families of those who died, and documentation about the crash. There's a photograph included of the pilot who perished standing with three of his sons and that image alone says more than pages of words ever could. He doesn't just tell his story. He tells the story of everyone who was on that plane. A small criticism: a few sections in the middle slow the momentum slightly, but the payoff at the end is absolutely worth sticking through it.

[Stephen McKenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a Rock in the Clouds, Col. Tedeschi give us a dramatic example of the resilience of the human body and spirit. Not only his own, but also that of the other survivors of the C-7A Caribou that ran into a rock in the clouds encasing Hon Cong Mountain in Vietnam, as well as the heroic soldiers that administered medical care and carried the injured to the top of the steep mountain.