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Colonel Robert Tonsetic, USA
(ret.) “grew up in the Pittsburgh area. After completing the University of Pittsburgh in 1964, he was commissioned as
an infantry lieutenant. He served as a company commander for 6 months during the Tet and May Offensives in 1968. He later
served as an advisor to the Vietnamese Ranger and Airborne units. He retired from the Army in 1991 with the rank of colonel.
He subsequently received a doctorate in education and taught for four years at the University of Central Florida. While in
Vietnam, Colonel Robert Tonsetic received the Distinguished Service Cross for his service. Colonel Robert Tonsetic is the
author of Warriors: An Infantryman Memoir of Vietnam and Days of Valor: An Inside Account of the Bloodiest Six
Months of the Vietnam War.
According to the book description of
Days of Valor: An Inside Account of the Bloodiest Six Months of the Vietnam War, “A nonstop
maelstrom of combat action, leaving the reader nearly breathless by the end. The human courage and carnage described in these
pages resonates through the centuries, from Borodino to the Bulge, but the focus here is on the Vietnam War, and a unique
unit formed to take part at its height. The 199th
Light Infantry Brigade was created from three U.S. infantry battalions of long lineage, as a fast reaction force for the U.S.
to place in Indochina. As the book begins, in December 1967, the brigade has been in Vietnam for a year, and many of its battered
12-month men are returning home. This is timely, as the Communists seem to be in a lull, and the brigade commander, in order
to whet his new soldiers to combat, requests a transfer to a more active sector, just above Saigon. Through January the battalions
scour the sector, finding increasing enemy strength, NVA personnel now mixed within Viet Cong units. But the enemy is lying
low, and a truce has even been declared for the Vietnamese New Year, the holiday called Tet.
On January 30, 1968, the storm breaks
loose, as Saigon and nearly every provincial capital in the country is overrun by VC and NVA, bursting in unexpected strength
from their base camps. In these battles we learn the most intimate details of combat, as the Communists fight with rockets,
mortars, Chinese claymores, mines, machine guns and AK-47s. The battles evolve into an enemy favoring the cloak of night,
the jungle-both urban and natural-and subterranean fortifications, against U.S. forces favoring direct confrontational battle
supported by air and artillery. When the lines are only 25 yards apart, however, there is little way to distinguish between
the firepower or courage of the assailants and the defenders, or even who is who at any given moment, as both sides have the
other in direct sight. Many of the vividly described figures in this book do not make it to the end. The narrative is jarring,
because even though the author was a company commander during these battles, he has based this work upon objective research
including countless interviews with other soldiers of the 199th LIB. The result is that everything we once heard about Vietnam
is laid bare in this book through actual experience, as U.S. troops go head-to-head at close-range against their counterparts,
perhaps the most stubborn foe in our history.
Days of Valor covers the height of
the Vietnam War, from the nervous period just before Tet, through the defeat of that offensive, to the highly underwritten
yet equally bloody NVA counteroffensive launched in May 1968. The book ends with a brief note about the 199th LIB being deactivated in spring 1970, furling its colors after suffering
753 dead and some 5,000 wounded. The brigade had only been a temporary creation, designed for one purpose. Though its heroism
is now a matter of history, it should remain a source of pride for all Americans. This fascinating book will help to remind
us”. According to the book description of
Warriors: An Infantryman Memoir of Vietnam, “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 the tumultuous 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 legendary Tet 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-reaction force 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 and taking 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.”
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According to the book description of
FORSAKEN WARRIORS: The Story of an
American Advisor who Fought with the
South Vietnamese Rangers and Airborne,
“An inside account of the South
Vietnamese elites who strove to carry on
the war against the Communists during the
U.S. Army's withdrawal. The book is a
personal memoir of the author's service
as a US Army advisor during the
end-stages of America's involvement in
Vietnam. During the period 1970-71, the
US was beginning to draw down its combat
forces, and the new watchword was
Vietnamization. It was the period when
the will of the US to prosecute the war
had slipped, and transferring
responsibility to the South Vietnamese
was the only remaining hope for victory.
The author served as
a US Army advisor to South Vietnamese
Ranger and Airborne units during this
critical period. The units that the
author advised spearheaded several
campaigns in South Vietnam, Cambodia, and
Laos, as the US combat units withdrew.
Often outnumbered and outgunned, the
elite ranger and airborne units fought
Viet Cong and North Vietnamese units in
some of the most difficult terrain in
Southeast Asia, ranging from the
legendary U Minh forest and Mo So
mountains in the Mekong Delta, to the
rugged hills of southern Laos.
The role of the
small US advisory teams is fully
explained in the narrative. With little
support from higher headquarters, these
teams accompanied the Vietnamese units on
highly dangerous combat operations over
which they had no command or control
authority. When US advisors were
restricted from accompanying South
Vietnamese forces on cross-border
operations in Cambodia and especially
Laos, the South Vietnamese forces were
badly mauled, raising concerns about
their readiness and training, and their
ability to operate without their US
advisors. As a result, a major effort was
placed on training these forces while the
clock continued to run on the US
withdrawal. Having served with a US
infantry battalion during the peak years
of the US involvement in Vietnam, Robert
Tonsetic-the acclaimed author of Days of
Valor-is able to view the war through two
different prisms and offer criticisms and
an awareness of why the South Vietnamese
armed forces were ultimately defeated. |
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