The Twins Platoon: An Epic Story of Young Marines at War in Vietnam

Front Cover
Voyageur Press, Mar 20, 2006 - History - 288 pages
In the evening of June 28, 1967, 150 young Americans were sworn into the Marine Corps as part of the pre-game ceremonies of a Minnesota Twins baseball game. Before the end of the fourth inning these volunteers were being hustled on to buses, on their way to boot camp. It was a journey that would take them from a boyhood of baseball in the American heartland to manhood on the killing fields of Vietnam. Christy Sauro was one of the Twins Platoon, and in this book he tells what it was like-from the pomp and ceremony of induction to the all-too-real initiation by fire that would shortly follow: in mere months, he and most of the Twins Platoon were on the ground in Vietnam and promptly faced with some of the toughest fighting of the war, the Siege of Khe Sanh and the Tet Offensive, including the brutal Battle for Hue. From baseball to boot camp to brutal combat, his is a firsthand story of American life being lived at the limits-and changed forever.
 

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Contents

The Minnesota Twins Platoon
16
The Ceremony
24
The Day from Hell
26
Inside Marine Boot Camp
36
Whats T1?
50
Esprit De Corps
59
Graduation Day
69
Advanced Training
74
The Sapper of Attack of April 1968
159
Camp Evans
165
The Battle of Dai Do
169
Operation Mameluke Thrust
186
Happy Valley
203
Night Patrol
215
The Mule of Thua Thien Province
218
Operation Pipestone Canyon
228

VIETNAM TET 1968
85
The Cua Viet
86
Attack on Khe Sanh
93
Dear Mr President
107
Attack on Da Nang
115
The Battle of Hue City
128
Defense of Khe Sanh
142
Lam Xuan East
154
AFTER VIETNAM
235
PostTraumatic Stress Disorder
236
Anguish
251
One Nation under God
263
Tears of Blood
274
Bibliography
285
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