The Rescue of River City

Book: The Rescue of River City
Author: Drew Dix

    Publisher: Drew Dix Publishing
    ISBN: 0-9703096-0-0
    First edition: 2000



Summary: The author tells the story of his leading a small group of indigenous soldiers during the '68 Tet Offensive in taking back the city of Chau Phu, commonly called Chau Doc, from two battalions of Main Force VC. Dix was a  young Special Forces staff sergeant at the time, serving as the advisor to a Provincial Reconnaissance Unit working for the CIA to ferret out the VC infrastructure. It is pretty much nonstop action from the beginning. For a short time a small group of Navy Seals lent their support as well. His retaking of the city started with the rescue of a American nurse, Maggie O'Brien, from her VC occupied home. Other actions included rescuing eight more American civilians, taking back a RVN police station, clearing the enemy from a hotel, theater and other buildings. In the process of clearing the theater, he captured a high ranking VC official. In another blazing gun battle he and his men rescued the family of the Province Chief whose home was occupied by the VC. For his actions, SSG Dix was awarded the Medal of Honor and granted a direct commission to first lieutenant.

241 pages, 14 pages of photographs on coated stock, two maps, Medal of Honor citation, glossary, no index.

Thoughts: This is an extremely exciting book, difficult to put down. It is very well written. It is a gold mine of wargame scenarios for small unit actions where one figure equals one man. There is even some riverine action against VC holed up in a building. It sure makes one see what a difference on man can make. That is not to detract from his loyal Vietnamese, Cambodians and Chinese Nungs. They were fantastic too. But it was often seen in that war that the quality of the indigenous soldiers was dependent so much on the quality of the leadership provided. While I have used the term "soldiers", which these men were, they were actually mercenary soldiers, hired by the CIA. Mercenaries often are looked down upon, but many, like these, are loyal, courageous and skillful troops. I have read this book three times.

It is available as a hardback book with dust jacket, or as a Kindle. Here is the Amazon link:

https://www.amazon.com/Rescue-River-City-Drew-Dix/dp/0970309600/ref=sr_1_1?crid=XEH0SF0PZB23&dchild=1&keywords=rescue+of+river+city&qid=1607091454&sprefix=Rescue+of+river+city%2Caps%2C175&sr=8-1

Tom

What's the star rating?

I didn't know about this one - it looks like a great read.

BravoSix wrote:What's the star rating?

I read it three times, so...

Tom