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(More customer reviews)Colonel Stoffey played a number of roles during 3 tours in Vietnam; helicopter pilot, Forward Air Controller in OV-10s and finally as Air Officer and Assistant Amphibious Warfare Officer on the staff of Commander, 7th Fleet. His experience makes him uniquely qualified to cover the final years the US involvement in the war, and he does not disappoint. As "the" Marine in the 7th Fleet Command element, he was able to see, participate in and evaluate the outcomes of every important action, whether by air, ground or sea, involving the South Vietnamese, US Navy, Air Force, Marine or Army in the desperate days as American forces were withdrawing almost totally from ground combat, leaving only the air and naval forces to prosecute the war with our Vietnamese allies. He gives a grunt's eye view of the furious battles fought as the North Vietnamese invaded through the DMZ and down the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the final months before the Cease Fire was signed in January 1973. His close relationship with the 7th Fleet commanders and the many staff officers from all services gives significant insight into the decision making by senior service leaders, DoD officials and Military Command Authority as these decisions drove military action, or sometimes inaction. The author is honest in his assessments of these key players, warts and all. Much of what is related here is going to be new to the readers of the Vietnam experience, carefully revealing strategies and tactics heretofore known only to those who where there. This is a book that has a good balance between the personal and sometimes painful narrative of a true warrior and the broader view of an unfolding tragedy as the seeds of ultimate failure by the government of South Vietnam to remain independent are sown. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the Vietnam War.
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Fighting to Leave: The Final Years of America's War in Vietnam, 1972-1973Perhaps more vexing than any part of the Vietnam War--Americas longest--was getting out. This book offers a chronicle of those last difficult years, 1972 and 1973, that is at once a detailed and thorough overview and at the same time a vividly personal account. The year 1972 found Marine Corps pilot Robert E. Stoffey beginning his third combat tour in Vietnam. After flying 440 combat missions out of Da Nang and Marble Mountain Airfields in South Vietnam (and being shot down twice) between 1965 and 1970, Stoffey was in a unique position to judge the United States changed strategy. From the vantage point of the USS Oklahoma City, he fought--and observed--the critical and complex last two years of the war as Marine Air Officer and Assistant Amphibious Warfare Officer on the staff of the Commander, Seventh Fleet. As the South Vietnamese battled for survival against the onslaught from the Communist North Vietnamese Army, the U.S. Seventh Fleet, afloat in the Gulf of Tonkin and the South China Sea, was a significant supporting force. With the U.S. Navys mining of North Vietnams waterways, concentrated shore bombardments, and air attacks, this sea power was instrumental in leading to the negotiated end of the war and return of our POWs. This is the story that Robert Stoffey tells in his firsthand account of how the Vietnam War finally ended and what it took to get our POWs home.
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