Customer Reviews

Reluctant Warrior

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Reading Reluctant Warrior was like stepping through a door into the jungle. For just a little while I was on patrol again with 1st Recon, 3rd Plt, "C" Company. I saw and smelled OP 425, ran through the jungle and listened to the 46s coming to extract our team when we got in the "S__t Sandwich". My friends lived again---Thanks Mike! Chuck Fenwick HM3 1st Mar Div, 1st Recon, 3rd Plt, "C" Company, RVN 69-70.

Michael Hodgins captures the real spirit of the place and time. As a former Marine who served with the 1st Recon Bn, I can testify Mr. Hodgins presents a true and vivid picture of life in the bush, on an OP, and in Camp Reasoner. With all the distortions about Vietnam presented in the movies and on TV, as well as the anti-war prejudice of public school history teachers, this book should be required reading in the high school cirriculum. I hope someday someone will write a book that will tell us more about Lt. Skibbe, Lt. Rathmell, and Captain McVey who gave lost their lives protecting their troops.

Small unit leadership at its best. A compelling tale of the physical, mental, and moral challenges faced by a new `butter bar'. Forget the blood and guts. It's about map reading, fire control, long `walks in the sun' , elephant grass, insect bites, fatigue, surmounting the stigma of being the `FNG', and displaying leadership rather than demanding it. An excellent case study for junior officers and NCO's. An overlooked gem by a real pro.

Semper Fi is about all that can be said. This was the life of the grunt. No amplification or heroism that was not there. This is the best book I have ever read discribing the life. Also the excerpt on page 299 and 300 "These Good Men" by Micheal Norman is the first and only explanation of all of us that have ever served and our feelings forever to our comrades. I wish Micheal could write another book, I don't think he will. It was all in this one.

Only those who experienced 'Nam first hand will ever understand how it was. My husband was a door gunner on a huey in the Marines and paints Vietnam War folk art. He does not talk much about what he did so I have to look for answers in his paintings and read war books.

I must say that Reluctant Warrior did all a book could do to transport me to the field and into battle.

Great book! We need more like it.

This book is an outstanding account of recon battalion actions in Vietnam. It is well worth reading. I served with Mike before the war. He was a straight shooter then, and a straight shooter in Vietnam

Excellent book about Recon operations in Vietnam. I served with Mike in OCS before Vietnam. I highly recommend the book.

I've never written a book review before, but I believe that this book deserved one! "Reluctant Warrior" was intelligently written and well thought out. Michael Hodgins makes one actually "live" the patrols with the "recon teams" and describes the fears, terror, and concerns that they faced. This is an excellent read, a microcosm of the war, which I highly recommend...As a personal note, I am very critical about books, especially ones that can't hold my interest and/or attention. With "Reluctant Warrior", I found that I could not put it down!

In his preface, Michael C. Hodgins hits the target when he identifies the motivating factor of 60s-era draft dodgers such as our illustrious president: convenient and self-serving anti-war sentiment. He then leads the reader into his own microcosm of the war in which he led a group of marines on several hair-raising missions into enemy-held territory. The characters come alive: I can still see them crawling through elephant grass and hacking their way through bamboo. I can see their faces and understand their enthusiasm, misgivings, and hopes. Hodgins is by no means the gung-ho grunt of John Wayne movie lore, but a man who was called upon to do his duty and who did it. How Hodgins interacts with the members of his team is fascinating. His keen psychological insights into his men's states of mind intrigued me as much as Hodgins' own doubts and fears, signaled in the text by the recurring thought, "What now Lieutenant?" So well-written, and so laden with meaning on so many different levels, this book could be used as a text in history, literature, or psychology classes. I will definitely be reading this one again.

I have to commend people who waded their way through this poorly written account. I made it through two whole chapters before his "I deduced" wore me to a frazzle. I really don't know what the guy's motives were for writing Reluctant..... I never got that far. I hope that the modicum of success in being published doesn't go to the guy's head tempting him to write anything else but then again, I wouldn't attempt to read it so he is welcome to give it the old jar head try. Oorah, Semper Fi !