MWSA Review

Bob Worthington’s Under Fire with ARVN Infantry: Memoir of a Combat Advisor in Vietnam 196 – 1967 is a must-read memoir for those seeking to understand America’s involvement with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam at the tactical level during the early war years. Written with humility, honesty, and keen self-reflection, Worthington’s writing is absent much of the bravado or exaggeration found in many military memoirs. Instead, readers will find an honest assessment of American and South Vietnamese soldiers as Worthington saw them at the company and battalion level. His later life as a psychologist and journalism professor is evident in the writing and analysis present.  

Review by Tim Heck (May 2020)

Author's Synopsis

From 1945 to 1973, more than 100,000 members of the US military were advisors in Vietnam. Worthington's first tour (1966-67) as a combat advisor began with training at the US Army Special Warfare School and then the Defense Language Institute for Vietnamese. In Vietnam he served as the senior advisor to Vietnamese infantry defense forces securing the city of DaNang and then an Army of the Republic of Vietnam infantry mobile reaction battalion. He worked alongside ARVN forces staging combat operations against Viet Cong and regular North Vietnamese units. He depicts an 8-day battle when his unit of 320 men made a night helicopter assault into a 1200-man NVA regiment. The NVA unit was destroyed but the ARVN suffered 45% casualties. Another night the Viet Cong stopped fighting so Worthington could arrange for a US helicopter medevac for a wounded VC baby. Training and fighting with ARVN Infantry are described as his combat advisors lived and fought with their Vietnamese counterparts.

ISBN/ASIN: 978-1-4766-7436-0, 978-1-4766-3444-9
Book Format(s): Soft cover, ePub/iBook
Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography
Number of Pages: 232