Book Review of Courage Under Fire: The 101st Airborne Hidden Battle at Tam Ky
Book Review of Courage Under Fire: The 101st Airborne Hidden Battle at Tam Ky by Ed Sherwood, LTC US Army (Retired). 360 pages. Casemate, 2021. $34.95.
By Patrick S. Baker
Recently, publishers have loaded the book shelves with titles touting the “hidden”, or “forgotten”, or “secret”, history of some event. The worst of these so-called “hidden history” books are pseudo-historical bilge, but the best of these books actually tell previously untold stories.
LTC Sherwood’s Courage Under Fire is certainly among the later as it relates the long ignored story of the First Brigade, 101st Airborne Division’s bloody struggle at the Battle of Tam Ky, also known as Operation Lamar Plain, May through August, 1969.
A highly adept researcher and skilled writer, Sherwood has crafted one of the best and most complete narratives of combat in Vietnam ever published. A young lieutenant leading the 3rd Platoon, Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry during the first part of the battle, Sherwood also writes with that precious firsthand knowledge most historians lack.
Yet the narrative rises far above mere personal account, as Sherwood takes care to put the fighting within the context of the tactical, operational and strategic climate of post-Tet Offensive Vietnam. Valuable context is also provided by the multiple maps, nine appendixes and a glossary.
Sherwood portrays the American soldiers, young enlistees or draftees, as well-trained, physically fit and mentally resilient, but who were deficient in combat experience against the North Vietnam Army (NVA). Attrition soon cut the line companies to two platoons, with junior NCOs heading shorthanded squads, yet the troops soldiered on. Sherwood implies that the odds favored the NVA, who had extensive knowledge of the ground, the support of the locals and well-prepared fighting positions. While the Americans depended on the massive firepower provided by artillery and air support, which ultimately made the difference at Tam Ky.
The book concentrates on the lead-up operations and the key battle of Hill 376. The 501st Battalion made the first helicopter combat assault of Lamar Plain on 16 May. Like most such actions in the Vietnam War, Tam Ky involved days and weeks of vicious and intense small-unit actions. Day to day, the casualty numbers seemed small compared to those World War Two, but the numbers gradually and relentlessly grew into the hundreds and then thousands. For each month of combat, Sherwood chronicles what was going on back in the US, or “The World” in soldiers’ slang. Each chapter ends with a table of casualties and medals awarded.
In the decisive action of the operation, the Americans launched a frontal assault on Hill 376. For nine brutal days the Americans made a bloody trudge through the rain and mud and enemy ambushes to the top of the hill. After reaching the hilltop, the men raised an American flag on the peak and then walked away, victorious, but also downcast.
The rationale behind the fact that the sacrifice and valor of the men of the 1st Brigade of the “Screaming Eagles” at Tam Ky was intentionally hidden for decades is simple. As Operation Lamar Plain started, headlines back in “the World” were trumpeting the 3rd Brigade’s “meat-grinder” fight at the Battle of Hamburger Hill some 100 miles northwest of Tam Ky. Hamburger Hill left more than six hundred American soldiers killed or wounded.
The politically beleaguered President Nixon and the new American commander in Vietnam, General Creighton Abrams, could not afford to openly acknowledge that another 525 Americans soldiers had become casualties in the Battle of Tam Ky; Not directly on the heels of the carnage of Hamburger Hill. The Battle of Tam Ky had to remain official “hidden” for political reasons.
Summing up: I recommend Courage Under Fire in the strongest terms possible. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the Vietnam War, or anyone interested in stories of the courage and camaraderie of men in combat.
Patrick S. Baker is a U.S. Army Veteran, and a retired Department of Defense employee. He holds Bachelor degrees in History and Political Science and a Masters in European History. His history articles have appeared in Military History, Strategy and Tactics, Modern War, Medieval Warfare and Ancient Warfare Magazines.