Book Description

Drafted in late May 1968, Adams, barely 20 years old, was quickly transformed into an infantry rifleman on the front lines of the Vietnam War, where he survived a year of combat with the famed "Manchu" Regiment, 25th Infantry "Tropic Lightning" Division. Sent in as replacements for those Bravo Co. soldiers who were killed in the Thanksgiving Day Battle of 1968, Adams and his fellow soldiers were charged with building "Mole City," a combat patrol base camp near the Cambodian Border, to purposely bait the NVA and disrupt their supply lines through the region. He had been "in country" for less than a month when the NVA attacked Mole City during a Christmas truce, just before midnight on December 22, 1968. The Manchus fought valiantly through the night as their ammo supplies dwindled, and as a last resort, artillery was called in on Mole City. In 2003, Adams began reaching out to the families of fallen comrades and reconnecting with his fellow Manchus - many of whom suffer some form of PTSD as a result of the horrors they experienced in Vietnam. As these surviving warriors age, they are now burying their Manchu Brothers. Fifty years later, through a photographic history featuring 250+ color pictures, Adams recounts his journey from a rural Midwestern town to the jungles of Vietnam, sharing what it's like to fight - and not die - for your country.