We were all firing. Tracers from the thirty caliber weapons were ricocheting so high I thought the Cong were sending up flares. I fired up one magazine and then another. I kept firing. We all did. I wanted nothing to live out there. I felt nothing, neither elation nor horror, just the cold astringent calm.
I fired up five magazines before I stopped. Then everybody stopped and I called out. “Cowboy, let’s check out the stiffs.”
We got up and moved onto the trail. The bodies were lying to the left, to the right, on the trail, cut down running. I fired a round in the ground by each man to see if he would move. None did. Cowboy moved beside me, covering.
When we came to the last one I moved in on him and he raised up, his arms extended, eyes wide. He had no weapon. I said, “Good, we got a pris …”
Cowboy stitched him up the middle with his AR-15. He didn’t even twitch.
I said, “We could have got some good information from that guy.”
“Sorry,” said Cowboy. “I get, you know, excited.”

I read Jim Morris’ classic Special Forces memoir while I was in Iraq. I was a young Special Forces Sergeant myself and as it turns out I was dealing with a lot of the same successes and frustrations that Jim was confronted with during his war in Vietnam. I say that this book is timeless and I really mean that. War Story is a great book about the specifics, the tactics and atmosphere felt when going out on patrol, a great boots-on-the-ground first person account of war but it is more than just that. To date I feel that this is the best book written about US Army Special Forces. You can take the word “communist” and replace it with the word “terrorist” and War Story could almost be a book about my experiences in Iraq.

War Story should be required reading for every Special Forces soldier and is a must read for civilians looking to gain insight into a world that is often clouded with misconceptions. Jim is a powerful writer who had a powerful experience in Vietnam, a dangerous combination to be sure. I’m still waiting for someone like him to “tell it like it is” about the War on Terror but until then, War Story would be my first pick and will always be first on my list of books about Special Forces in the Vietnam War.

While the book has been out of print for a while sending readers to ebay and half.com to search for it for years, Jim has just released the Kindle Edition of the book.  It’s at a great price so go check out the sample on Amazon!