Vietnam Veteran's 9th Infantry Division, 6-31st | home
Book List
There have been many books written about Vietnam, and notably these were authored by men of the 6-31st.
Sitting in the Flames
Uncovering Fearlessness to Help Others
by John Edwin DeVore
6-31st - Bravo/Echo/HHC
Click on the book cover to be directed to Amazon.com
Who is John Edwin DeVore? John served with the 6th Battalion, 31st Infantry from formation at Fort Lewis, Washington in November 1967 through completion of his second tour of duty in Vietnam in April 1969. John's assignments with the Battalion were CO, ECHO Company; CO, BRAVO Company; Assistant Operations Officer; and Operations Officer.
Fiery personal battles expose human nature in John's new book. Dr. Judith Simmer-Brown, Professor of Religious Studies at Naropa University, comments, “DeVore takes us through a war zone, and traces the effects of war on his family life and career after the military. Then he carries us with him into mature reflection, and the restless need to heal his burden. He shares with us the wisdom he has discovered in himself…DeVore's story is not just autobiography: it is a journey including all of us, unraveling the riddle of war at the heart of our culture.”
Joel Andreas, author of Addicted to War, states, “The gut-wrenching brutality experienced by American soldiers in Vietnam was for many the beginning of a lifelong personal struggle. Unlike many veterans, who were unable to cope after returning to civilian life, John DeVore moved with facility from success as an Army officer to success in corporate America. Nevertheless, like many other veterans, the war haunted DeVore and finally--in a process he narrates in this book--compelled him to make a commitment to free himself and our country from the addiction to war.”
John graduated from West Point with a BS degree, earned an MA in Religious Studies from Naropa University, and an MBA and a PhD in Human Communication Studies from the University of Denver. He served eight years in the Army, including two years of combat during the Vietnam War. His decorations include the Combat Infantryman's Badge, three Bronze Star Medals, two Air Medals, two Army Commendation Ribbons, three Vietnamese Gallantry Crosses, and the Vietnamese Staff Medal of Honor. He is now retired and is a living, work-in-process example of the personal freedom available to one who is willing to sit in the pain and torment of fiery battles, including early childhood and cultural conditioning, war, corporate America, and the search for roots and a more purposeful life.
This review is taken from BookSurge.com
BookSurge LLC, An Amazon.com company
As reviewed by New York Times best-selling author Ellen Tanner Marsh
Much has been written or filmed about the Vietnam War. We’re all familiar with the brutal carnage, the heroics of soldiers under pressure and the endlessly heartbreaking entries in our history books. Is there a way to extract some good from this tragic war, and if so, how can we put a human face on it?
Author John Edwin DeVore has written a grippingly personal story of his experiences in Vietnam, an astonishing revelation of how those experiences led him on a spiritual search that transformed his life for the better. Like many veterans, DeVore was forever changed by his time in Vietnam. Overwhelmed with dark memories for 40 years, he struggled to find and create something beneficial from the pain. His intense, spiritual journey is the basis of Sitting in the Flames: Uncovering Fearlessness to Help Others, a shining and ambitious new addition to the genre.
In clear, heartfelt prose, DeVore describes a brave and unflinching confrontation with his past, made necessary in order for him to have a more meaningful future. War, he realized, isn’t just one man’s experience—it’s the sum total experience of an entire country. To stop wars, he argues, we must understand them and why we seem to need them.
Beautifully told, DeVore’s book is an important and unforgettable addition to the literature of Vietnam—important in helping to ease the still troubled conscience of America and unforgettable for its moving confirmation of the belief that human beings can emerge from the most shattering experiences with their spirit still intact. Above all, this is a finely rendered and heartfelt account of one man’s inner journey to peace.
Jungle in Black
by Steve Maguire
6-31st - Alpha/Echo Company
Click on book to e-mail Steve regarding availability of book
Review of “Jungle In Black”
From the Retired Officer Magazine/October 1992
(now known as Military Officers Association of America Magazine)
“The Bookshelf” page 72
Jungle in Black (Bantam Books, 1992)
By Steve Maguire
Captain Steve Maguire remembers in vivid detail his last days in combat. The year was 1969, and Maguire, then a promising 24-year-old airborne ranger, was leading his platoon on an assault mission in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. Crouching to confirm the trip wire on a hidden Viet Cong mine, Maguire was ripped by an explosion that blinded him for life.
With one kind of fight behind him, another began. This is Maguire’s account of his last days in Vietnam, his uneasy recuperation and his road to emotional and psychological regeneration. “I’d thought plenty about what I would do if I could do it all again,” Maguire says only days after his injury. “The same mostly–change the part where I’d follow Skinner and Voss. That single scene, just those few frames, gripped my available waking time like a single corrosive spot in the entire rerun of my life.”
Maguire’s struggle to reclaim his life gets a critical boost when he lands in Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C., where a colorful cast of severely wounded soldiers banter and retort their way through months of confinement. Their repartee, much of it r-rated, is central to the healing process. It is in this setting that Maguire meets the man who will become his closest and lifelong friend and the woman who will become his wife. It is here, too, that young Maguire and fellow veterans pit their view of the war against that of local college students caught up in the country’s antiwar fervor.
Maguire provides a moving, entertaining and uplifting account of what to legions of disabled veterans, is one of war’s greatest challenges. His story is a testament to the power of love and laughter.
Your Sons - My Soldiers - Our War
Charlie Hunter
by Captain George R. Mauldin
6-31st - Charlie Company
Click on the book cover to be directed to Amazon.com to order this book
The following is from George Mauldin on his book, Thank You George, for this personal reflection...
“Your Sons-My Soldiers-Our War” A Vietnam Commander's Struggle
By: George Mauldin
I wrote this story to tell a small part of “Charlie Hunter's” story and also to memorialize SGT Santana S. Fernandez Jr. (called Mouse by his fellow soldiers) who is a true hero in my eyes. Last, but not least, I needed some outlet for my guilt and anger, which resulted directly from the way we were treated both during the war and afterward. I tried to capture with words the pain and agony of war, but I also dealt directly with the divisive issues which plagued us as a nation and as a military fighting force. The story also speaks to humorous situations and the everyday tasks of surviving as a soldier in the inhospitable and dangerous places in which we conducted operations. Most of the soldiers, who served in this unit while I was its commander, were brave and selfless. These character traits were evident to me in virtually everything they were asked to do. If I wrote a thousand such books, I would never exhaust the many words of praise that I have in my heart for the young soldiers who served under my command and put their lives at risk virtually day. They served with honor and dignity and this is my way of doing my part to ensure that their story is told.
This review is taken from Amazon.com
One of his soldiers, October 30, 2005
Reviewer: Stephen Cox (Medford, Oregon)
I ordered this book as soon as I learned of it being written. Just knowing Captain Mauldin was still alive and well brought a huge smile to my face and after reading his book, Your Sons-My Soldiers-Our War, I'm still smiling. I was pleased to know he would be basing his fictional story on his experiences as Company Commander of Charlie Company, 6th Battalion of the 31st Infantry, but also anxious to see just how the story would be told.
George Mauldin arrived at Charlie Company in October 1968 as a career Army officer in his second tour of Vietnam, having specifically requested command of an infantry company. I arrived at the same time, or nearly so, as a reluctant draftee who had reluctantly allowed the Army to make me an instant, or shake-n-bake, NCO, the Vietnam equivalent of a 90 day wonder. He wanted to be there. I did not. He was my CO until my tour abruptly ended on April 26, 1969 with me receiving the million dollar wound, shortly before Captain Mauldin moved on to his next assignment.
I'm sure I am not qualified to review his book as a work of literature, but I can certainly speak to his credibility and experience as qualifications to write about war. He's got it in buckets. Big ones. David Hackworth, who seemed to have little good to say about any outfit other than his own, acknowedged in his book that Captain Mauldin and C 6-31st performed well on a combined operation. Several years ago I found an account of a battle in the plain of reeds that included testimony of one of the NVA members who had been the object of our assault and slipped through our positions at night. That enemy soldier also expressed respect for our outfit.
I went nearly thirty years without any contact from any member of C 6/31. Computers and the internet changed all that. Mostly by e-mails, I've lost count of how many former members of Charlie Company I've contacted. One thing we share is a respect for Captain Mauldin. I have only read and heard positive opinions of him as a combat officer. After reading his book, I know our respect for him was justified.
His story is fiction, based on true combat operations and real members of C 6/31. Names have been changed, and some descriptions of operations differ a bit from my memory, but they match closely enough to be recognizable. Some scenes were shocking to me as I read them, but they were shocking 37 years ago, too. One of the characters in the book is Mouse, a nickname of course, but Mouse was very real. Your Sons-My Soldiers-Our War tells the story of combat by a commander who really did care and did his job well in spite of extreme conditions.
America's Foreign Legion - The 31st Infantry Regiment at War and Peace
A book in progress
Col (Ret) Karl H. Lowe, Historian
6-31st Delta Company
The 31st Infantry Regiment has served our country almost continuously for 87 years. Its active duty members are currently deployed as company task forces on security and training missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa and at the 4th Battalion’s base at Ft Drum, NY. This draft is the foundation of a book on the regiment’s history yet to be published. It is submitted to members of the 31st Infantry Regiment Association to honor the Service of members, living and dead, who contributed their experiences and perspectives to its writing.
Karl has graciously shared with us a chapter from his work. Chapter 18 - 6th BATTALION IN VIETNAM 1967-1970. Click on the photo to view Chapter 18, or follow this link to view all chapters of Karl's book, the history of the 31st Infantry Regiment.
Karl appreciates all feedback and wil update his draft text with your comments accordingly. This project was launched in 1997, the information you convey to Karl, your memories are a contributing factor to the success of this book. Email your comments to Karl Lowe.
House to House: Playing the Enemy's Game in Saigon, May 1968
by Keith Nolan
Click on the book cover to be directed to Amazon.com to order this book
Comments by Bruce Swander (friend of the 6-31st, fellow Vet and researcher)
Of interest, it gives a day-day activities of the Cholon battle in May 1968......with details of 6/31, names and efforts of the men, along with sister Units (5/60, etc) that fought along with your Unit. Russell (C Co) and Jones (B Co) were awarded the DSC's for action during this - and it would be worthwhile for you to get the word out to your membership and/or families to get a copy of it. Keith appears to have done an excellent job of showing the hour-hour battle. A must read.
We have also received recommendations from other 6-31st members who were aware that this book was being released.
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