Tim Soyars
Where's Charlie? Memories from a Time of War, 1965-68
Where's Charlie? Memories from a Time of War, 1965-68
About the Book
The late 1960s was a time of war for the United States of America. It was also a time when all eligible young men were required to serve their country, and most of us merely answered the call as our fathers before us had done.
While growing up in the 1950s, stories of World War I, World War II, and Korea were very familiar to me since they were the subjects of storytelling, songs, books, news articles, and movies. They seemed to instill pride and patriotism in all Americans, and all veterans were held in high esteem and honored with great fanfare. As a boy, I often saw myself as Sergeant York, Audie Murphy, or one of John Wayne’s many characters. In my daydreams and role-play, I was always a brave leader of men. I knew that someday I would serve my country, and that day came in 1965 when I stepped forward eagerly. Like many soldiers, I returned from Vietnam with pride and honor, a sense of accomplishment, good memories, and the good fortune to have survived without injury.
My wife and children, especially my son, have encouraged me to write my stories for years. I finally started in 2005. As I started, I refreshed my memory by going through copies of my company’s operational reports, the daily correspondence between my wife and me, and over six hundred photos I took while in Vietnam. Excerpts of all three sources are included in the book or in the appendix.
I begin with a combat story in Vietnam and then glance backward to my family and my life as a boy. This sets the stage for my desire to be in the army and to give you a glimpse of the boy who would become a man during his time of war. From there I share some of my more significant and often humorous experiences during training, on my way to becoming an infantry second lieutenant in the US Army. The bulk of the book is about the war and my time with the First Air Cavalry. While my stories are about wartime, they entertain and excite with humor, warmth, compassion, honor, sadness, heroics, and romance. My military experience provided the foundation for the rest of my life. I sincerely hope this book might inspire some young person to experience the military to its fullest as I did.
My book title, Where’s Charlie?, relates to the difficulty we had in finding the enemy (Charlie), especially during 1967, and the fact that I was in Charlie Company. My company made daily combat air assaults all over the Central Highlands and near the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). My wife tried to monitor my location by keeping a map on the wall and peppering it with pushpins. By the time I got home in 1968, the map looked like a shotgun spray over the Central Highlands with a smattering around the DMZ. She had almost as much trouble finding Charlie Company as I did finding Charlie.
My book is now available on the iUniverse website at the following link:
The late 1960s was a time of war for the United States of America. It was also a time when all eligible young men were required to serve their country, and most of us merely answered the call as our fathers before us had done.
While growing up in the 1950s, stories of World War I, World War II, and Korea were very familiar to me since they were the subjects of storytelling, songs, books, news articles, and movies. They seemed to instill pride and patriotism in all Americans, and all veterans were held in high esteem and honored with great fanfare. As a boy, I often saw myself as Sergeant York, Audie Murphy, or one of John Wayne’s many characters. In my daydreams and role-play, I was always a brave leader of men. I knew that someday I would serve my country, and that day came in 1965 when I stepped forward eagerly. Like many soldiers, I returned from Vietnam with pride and honor, a sense of accomplishment, good memories, and the good fortune to have survived without injury.
My wife and children, especially my son, have encouraged me to write my stories for years. I finally started in 2005. As I started, I refreshed my memory by going through copies of my company’s operational reports, the daily correspondence between my wife and me, and over six hundred photos I took while in Vietnam. Excerpts of all three sources are included in the book or in the appendix.
I begin with a combat story in Vietnam and then glance backward to my family and my life as a boy. This sets the stage for my desire to be in the army and to give you a glimpse of the boy who would become a man during his time of war. From there I share some of my more significant and often humorous experiences during training, on my way to becoming an infantry second lieutenant in the US Army. The bulk of the book is about the war and my time with the First Air Cavalry. While my stories are about wartime, they entertain and excite with humor, warmth, compassion, honor, sadness, heroics, and romance. My military experience provided the foundation for the rest of my life. I sincerely hope this book might inspire some young person to experience the military to its fullest as I did.
My book title, Where’s Charlie?, relates to the difficulty we had in finding the enemy (Charlie), especially during 1967, and the fact that I was in Charlie Company. My company made daily combat air assaults all over the Central Highlands and near the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). My wife tried to monitor my location by keeping a map on the wall and peppering it with pushpins. By the time I got home in 1968, the map looked like a shotgun spray over the Central Highlands with a smattering around the DMZ. She had almost as much trouble finding Charlie Company as I did finding Charlie.
My book is now available on the iUniverse website at the following link:
https://www.iuniverse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/214960-Where-s-Charlie