Road of 10,000 Pains: The Destruction of the 2nd NVA Division by the U.S. Marines, 1967 Book

Wasn't a fan initially of the author's approach to telling the story with snippets by multiple participants, but the individual stories are compelling and the approach grew on me. I wish there were better maps of the engagements as they are described. This is a homage to the Vietnam Veteran. Lots of great personal pictures provided by the participants as well. One can not but be moved by the selflessness of these Marines who fought fiercely. The NVA were also formidable soldiers.

Some takeaways. I never knew that CS (tear gas) was employed so much in Vietnam. I can't even begin to imagine trying to wear a gas mask in the heat and humidity of RVN. I have met several of the men in this book and I'm in awe of their accomplishments. I knew they fought in Vietnam and had commanded squads, companies, and battalions but knowing that really didn't bridge the gap of my comprehension of their service. Only by reading this book do I now have an appreciation of just what they endured. I had read the official Marine Corps histories too. Also the amount of torture done by the NVA on prisoners and the mutilation of the dead was surprising. The other factor that just screams out is the M-16 rifle. So many Marines were killed because their rifle didn't work. More should have been said about the AK 47 which allowed a poorly trained NVA recruit to become a lethal killer.

It also struck me that the NVA capitalized on the audacity of the Marines. It seemed time and time again companies were caught in L shaped ambushes by two battalions of NVA. A good analogy might be the Civil War with the South fighting offensively and squandering their precious manpower with the USMC being like the South, always attacking. The Marines destroyed the 2nd NVA Division but at a high price in KIA's and this was the year before the 1968 Tet Offensive. This campaign basically prevented Da Nang from becoming like Hue. But I really don't know what we could have done otherwise in terms of offensive tactics. The NVA had no airpower but were masters of camouflage. We knew they were there but not exactly where.