Overview

A riveting memoir of one marine rifleman's journey from Parris Island through the hell of Vietnam and the Tet Offensive with the Second Battalion, Fourth Marines. In 1967, a young E. Michael Helms boarded a bus to the legendary grounds of Parris Island, where mere boys were forged into hardened Marines--and sent to the jungles of Vietnam. It was the first stop on a journey that would forever change him--and by its end, he would be awarded the Purple Heart Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, Presidential Unit Citation, Navy Unit Citation, and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry. From the brutality and endurance-straining ordeals of boot camp to the endless horror of combat, Helms paints a vivid, unflinchingly realistic depiction of the lives of Marines in training and under fire. As powerful and compelling a battlefield memoir as any ever written, Helms's ""grunt's-eye"" view of the Vietnam War, the men who fought it, and the mindless chaos that surrounded it, is truly a modern military classic.

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9780743483247

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Reviews

The Veterans News A stunning account of war....Like Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, The Proud Bastards is timeless.

The Veterans News A stunning account of war....Like Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, The Proud Bastards is timeless.

Keith William Nolan author of Battle for Hue The best grunt-level, tell-it-like-it-was work I've read....A classic.

Author Information

A veteran, writer, and editor, E. Michael Helms Helms has published articles and stories in several regional and national magazines. His work has also appeared in the books Soldier's Heart: Survivors' Views of Combat Trauma and Two Score And Ten: Third Marine Division's History. He is the author of numerous books, including The Proud Bastards and The Private War of Corporal Henson. He lives in South Carolina with his wife, Karen.

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