Assault on Dak Pek: A Special Forces A-Team in Combat, 1970 [Mass Market Paperback]

Leigh Wade (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 29, 1998

In the early hours of April 12, 1970, the NVA brutally attacked the Special Forces A-team camp at Dak Pek, seizing more than half the base--including the high ground and its 106mm recoilless rifle--plus the surrounding valley and mountains. Twenty kilometers south, at Dak Seang, another huge concentration of NVA was attempting to overrun the Special Forces camp there.

Now it was time for the Americans to fight back.

With gritty honesty, SF veteran--five tours in Vietnam and Thailand--Leigh Wade recounts the weeks of carnage, courage, and sacrifice in which the men of Dak Pek carried out bunker-to-bunker mop-up operations and heroic uphill counterattacks to reclaim their base. With hundreds of corpses littering the camp, it was truly a fight to the death--a fight that proved just what Americans are made of. . . .

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

In the early hours of April 12, 1970, the NVA brutally attacked the Special Forces A-team camp at Dak Pek, seizing more than half the base--including the high ground and its 106mm recoilless rifle--plus the surrounding valley and mountains. Twenty kilometers south, at Dak Seang, another huge concentration of NVA was attempting to overrun the Special Forces camp there.

Now it was time for the Americans to fight back.

With gritty honesty, SF veteran--five tours in Vietnam and Thailand--Leigh Wade recounts the weeks of carnage, courage, and sacrifice in which the men of Dak Pek carried out bunker-to-bunker mop-up operations and heroic uphill counterattacks to reclaim their base. With hundreds of corpses littering the camp, it was truly a fight to the death--a fight that proved just what Americans are made of. . . .

About the Author

Leigh Wade was born in Perry, Oklahoma, in August 1942. His father was a professional army officer, and the family moved around a lot. Leigh joined the army in 1961, a week after he graduated high school. He spent most of the next ten years with Special Forces units in Southeast Asia. He left the army in 1971 but returned in 1982. He retired a sergeant first class in 1992. He is also the author of Tan Phu: Special Forces Team A-23 in Combat and The Protected Will Never Know. He has two sons and a daughter and lives with his younger son in Tucson.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1st edition (August 29, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804118361
• ISBN-13: 978-0804118361
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 3.8 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,338,894 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great reading, especially for those who spent time in SF., October 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Assault on Dak Pek: A Special Forces A-Team in Combat, 1970 (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the last book in SFC Leigh Wade's series on his experiences during the Vietnam war. I think this final book is the best of the three. Wade tells his story with his usual wry sense of humor, and even the bloody, gory details of the combat action he describes contain many parts that made me laugh. And it rekindled a few memories long forgotten. The book covers the action in three major battles and numerous small engagements, and Wade tells it like it really was. Readers who need more action than there is in this book should probably be reading action-adventure fantasy such as the Mack Bolan series. The final short section of the book tells how life was in the United States for many returning Vietnam veterans and offers some encouragement and advice to other veterans who might be having adjustment problems. I highly recommend this book to veterans and non veterans alike. And hopefully, Wade will find a few more subjects to write about, as his style is honest and refreshing to read. -- Ron L. Helton

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FOR SOME REASON!?, June 3, 2002

By 

Chad R. Reihm (Miami Beach, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Assault on Dak Pek: A Special Forces A-Team in Combat, 1970 (Mass Market Paperback)

Talk about a surprise. This book was nothing like what I expected and yet FOR SOME REASON i liked it. I was assuming this would be a book written about a single action, graphic in its detail, and filled with warfare throughout...but that is not the case. The summary tells of a bloody bunker to bunker clean up and weeks of heroic action filled fighting but that is not what i found. Yes the book has this but it fills a much smaller portion of the book than I thought it would. Most of the book is filled with the ordinary, day to day life of a special forces soldier and yet, maybe, this is the reason that I liked it. I for one like a book to be action packed but there was just something about wade and his experience, even his visits to town or his quiet patrols, that was extremely interesting. For the first time I got a look at life for a viet vet outside the normal experience. Wade spent time in Thailand, especially Bangkok, and his experiences there are far from ordinary and far from boring. And even when, in 1970, Wade was back 'in country' he retells all of his experience, terrifying or monotonous, in an extremely interesting fashion. And to put the icing on the cake Wade gives a postwar history of himself and gives us a first hand account of the battle against normalcy in America when he returned that in some ways was tougher than his battle in Vietnam. His rejection by so many he had fought for effected him for decades and this narration is extremely useful to both the Vet and non-Vet. He concludes by giving his advice on how to return from war without bringing the war with you...great stuff.
So in summary, even though it was not as action packed as I had envisioned, for some reason I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I have no doubt you will too!!!! Pick this cheap book up cuz it is a winner.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Coming of age in Viet Nam, November 11, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Assault on Dak Pek: A Special Forces A-Team in Combat, 1970 (Mass Market Paperback)

Leigh Wade, a young half-assed, arrogant kid tells us of his journey from being a swaggering know-it-all ("Tan Phu," volume 1 of this trilogy) to becoming a terrified -- and, incidentally, brave, U.S. Special Forces soldier fighting a war no one wanted. In the second volume, "The Protected Will Never Know," Wade's voice had matured, but there was still a scared kid beneath the more assured outer man. The descriptions of "insertions" behind enemy lines, while a nearly everyday occurrence to these young men, are chilling. And now comes "Assault on Dak Pek," and its descriptions of horrific battles and the understated heroism of these Special Forces. The voice has matured and the weariness and futility of the war no one could win comes through. This trilogy gives the reader a rare opportunity to experience Wade's coming of age and to feel how the overweening demands of war nearly destroyed him. We live with him through the frustrations of his return to an unwelcoming homeland. By pure chance, I was in Washington, D.C. the weekend of the dedication of the Viet Nam Ware Memorial. From the back steps of the Museum of American History, I stood watching the smartly uniformed troops marching in strict cadence. The street was lined with ramrod straight service men and women saluting as each unit passed. But I still get goosebumps when I remember how the small straggling group of View Nam veterans, most dressed in jeans, some with long hair, some in wheelchairs pushed by comrades, passed. A drumroll of heartfelt applause thundered up the avenue as they came. The onlookers in the bleachers stood up and cheered. Leigh Wade should have been in that group of survivors. I highly recommend this book to both adults and teenagers considering the military as a career.