I met author Forrest R. Lindsey at a gun show where he graciously provided a signed copy of this remarkable account of his experiences as a young man enlisting in the Marine Corps a year after high school in 1965. After witnessing the vagaries of war and eventually being wounded during combat operations in Vietnam, Lindsey struggled through a lengthy recovery process to regain the ability to walk. Eventually, his latent interest in the engineering and deployment of military arms led to his return to the Corps as an artillery officer in 1973.
During his 27-year career, Lindsey served in a variety of positions, eventually commanding the 5th Battalion, 11th Marines in 1993-’94 at Camp Pendleton, Calif. Afterward, he went to work at the U.S.M.C. Warfighting Laboratory in Quantico, Va., as a senior engineer and program manager, where he developed the XM-326 120 mm Automated Mortar System known as Dragon Fire.
Conveyed in a casual prose style and also through numerous in-country color and black-and-white photographs provided by the author and fellow Marines, Lindsey’s story weaves together personal experiences and broader observations about the Vietnam War that make it both captivating and informative for the layman and arms enthusiast alike. An appendix of Marine Corps weapons, vehicles and equipment provides first-hand insights into how such materiel was actually employed, along with commentary as to its effectiveness.
In all, this rather short (183-page) work serves as an insightful glimpse into a chapter in American history that involved one of the most misunderstood events of the past century. It is my hope that it causes every reader to reflect on the debt we owe such men as Lindsey and the many service personnel from all branches of the U.S. military who didn’t return from southeast Asia those many years ago.
MSRP is $39. For more information, visit dorrancepublishing.com.
