IR project, Last men out

Going to Vietnam

1 CE

At this point in the book 11 men go to Vietnam for the war, they were friends since they had entered the military at a young age.

Begining

2

At this point in the book the men start to discover how the war is going and how people back home are dealing with it. The men are introduced to their new home and how small it is and the living conditions that aren't great but aren't the worst.

The re taken village

3

At this point in the book the 11 men are being sent to an area to help a village that had been taken over but had been re taken. They find out that the people in the villages have been hurt very bad. Many killed and others scarred

Beginning of a new battle

4

After the people had been sent farther into US controlled territory, the soldiers had moved farther forward into a more hilly and tree covered are, when the squad of 300-400 men had started to take a hill to look for any sight of the enemy they heard a loud scream. It was a soldier peeing in a bush, he had been shot multiple times. They had been ambushed.

Ambush

5

After the man had been shot, all they could do was hide. The Vietnamese had been waiting for the soldiers, they were hiding in bushes, in trees, and in tunnels. A journalist had gone with the men to write down what happened, he had been shot in the foot and in his cantine. He had fainted. The soldiers had won the battle but had lost 30 men in doing so. They had been ambushed by 50-60 Northern Vietnamese solders. The men had fallen back to base.

Realization

6

After the men had been in Saigon for 4 of the 6 years. The 11 men had dissipated to 8 men. This was because of them being ambushed 5 times over the spread of 4 times of them trying to push forward and failing. After they realized that their was no moving after 4 years, they all tried to get out. No one got out until all civilians were out or if your service time was up. The men had to stay

Bad Experiences

7

At this point in the book, the men had seen it all. They saw a guy get eaten by a leopard, a Vietnamese suicide bomber blow up 3 Apaches and 2 Huey's in the middle of the night, they had seen multiple Vietnamese men get cut by a crashing helicopter, and they had seen a jet crash land into the forest.

The last year

8

After living in houses with no ac and sleeping in bags, the 8 remaining men had received letters. They all said the same thing, they said that the war was being ended and they were going to leave The men had all been too happy. They didn't realize that the only people left were them and citizens and a 2 commanders who were leaving in 2 days

Leaving

9

At the end of the book the men get a call that they were leaving. The only problem was that they had to wait for 200 civilians to leave. Them and 2 other squads of 15 or so men were left. There was only 3 planes left and each plane could hold 120 people at most. They had been the unlucky ones. They had to wait for a helicopter to pick them up, they had waited for 3 hours. No helicopter, no planes, no people, they were alone, waiting. Then they hear 1 shot, the Vietnamese had entered the village

Helicopter from heaven

10

As they had heard the shot it had been suppressed by the sound of a helicopter and a jet, the jet had been for support encase of a problem. The helicopter had landed 1000 yards away from the men for precaution. The men had only 1 focus, get to the helicopter. As they were running to the helicopter they had been getting shot at. It was the Vietnamese, the helicopter had radioed the jet the location of the enemy and the jet made 1 pass lighting up as many of them as he could then disappeared .

Home

11

The jet gave the men just enough time to get in the helicopter and leave. The men had been dropped off at an airport. They then had to change into civilian clothing. This was because of the people in the US, many would of had attacked the men instead of greeting them and thanking them because they didn't understand what was happening and were mad. The men had thrown their own welcome home party and thanked each other for what they had done since no one else appreciated what they did

Author and other info

13

Authors: Bob Drury and Tom Calvin
All videos i tried using were blocked
Informational texts: http://www.historynet.com/vietnam-war