Lurps A Rangers Diary of Tet Khe Sanh A Shau and Quang Tri

“A vivid and unusually honest tale of one man’s journey to…Vietnam and back…sure to entertain and inform…” — Dr. Erik B. Villard, U.S. Army Center of Military History

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars LURPS
Many of the books written on the war are from the perspective of the policy-makers. LURPS seems written on a personal level not often seen, a refreshing and interesting take on the war and the experiences of the fighting soldier. This is an excellent account of the war from a “boots on the ground” soldier. It affords an understanding of what the men dealt with on a daily basis, in combat and everyday life. The sideline stories and events that don’t make history are often as interesting and funny (sometimes more so) as the major battles and events that end up in the history-books, Ankony gives the reader the opportunity to see both sides.

5 Stars The bottom up view of Viet Nam
The stories out of Viet Nam by the lower level soldiers who were there doing the actual fighting are dramatically different than the stories from the commanders, and especially the stories from the anti-war protestors back in the states. It has now become accepted as fact that the war was immoral, not winnable, a mistake, and so on. Just about the same pitch that they are giving about the war in Iraq.

Dr. Ankony was there during Tet. He reports that 1,000 Americans were killed, and 32,000 NVA and Vietcong. Tet is viewed as a major American defeat. The Viet Namese government was fighting an eitirely different battle, using Tet to show that the American military and government leadership statements were misleading at best and downright lies at worst. Those 32,000 dead won them the war.

This story is from a grunt at the bottom end of the totem pole. This is what it was like for the low level working soldier. It’s not a story of great sacrifice, heroism, but the day to day life down at the level where their soldiers and our soldiers met each other. It’s a good story of men doing their best.

5 Stars Lurps: A Ranger’s Diary of Tet, Khe Sanh, A Shau, and Quang Tri
University Press of America has a review available for this book from the U.S. Center of Military History, Washington D.C.:

“From a blue-collar neighborhood in southwest Detroit to the badlands of northern I Corps, Ankony’s memoir is a vivid and unusually honest tale of one man’s journey to war in South Vietnam and back. From his remarkable, eyewitness account of the North Vietnamese attack on Quang Tri City during the 1968 Tet Offensive to his description of the equipment and skills a soldier in Vietnam needed to survive, [Ankony] has given us a highly readable tale that is sure to entertain and inform anyone who has an interest in the war.” – Dr. Erik B. Villard, U.S. Army Center of Military History, Washington, D.C.

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