Clearing Vietnam': Anatomy of a U.S. Army Land Clearing Team
,
captures the sights, sounds, and unusual encounters of a young combat engineer who found himself operating a specialized bulldozer within the dense jungles of South Vietnam.
It was a place where hard work, grueling conditions and enemy encounters forced this ninteen year old to grow up, while learning what it would ultimately take to help assure his survivability there. After all the many years removed from that distant land, and its seemingly endless inner turmoil, this detailed memoir serves to bring it all back into the light; to project the viewpoint and perspective of a common combat engineer, as he performed a not-so-common task, in operating a
Rome Plow
tractor, while somewhat reluctantly serving an elongated, but highly educational tour of duty in a place that seemed so desolately remote, at the time. Moreover, this detailed account also highlights the achievements and dedicated spirit of the members of a unique Engineer outfit, which evolved from a rag-tag platoon of Land Clearing pioneers, to eventually achieve Company status, within an unprecedented new battlion formation, comprised entirely of Land Clearing units. Essentially, this is a nuts and bolts and sweat and blood window view of a very different sort of wartime experience.