Customer Reviews

Rockets Like Rain: A Year in Vietnam (Hellgate Memories Series)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Not since 'Apocalypse Now' has a Viet Nam story moved me so deeply. The film made me feel the raw fear and mindless cruelty of war. When the GI's stepped off the boat to face the unknown terror of the faceless jungle ahead of them, I, too was gripped in fear and panic. The impact of that emotion has never left me.
Often, I have wondered how I would have behaved had I truly had to face the reality of that fear. Dale Reich talks about that fear. He faces the evil that I only suspected was lurking in that jungle. He was changed by it, as you will be after reading this book.
Rockets Like Rain is one man's very poignant, very personal, and very honest account of a year in Viet Nam as an infantryman. Simply written and profoundly deep, it is a book that stays with you long after you have turned the last page.

I have read a number of these books about Vietnam. I respect the author's service to his country in this war. However, the book is a series of complaints about pot smokers, RAMF, and so many others. War is certainly not civil. The author served in a front line position for six months and then as a correspondent for another six months. During his six months on the front line, he spent a lot of time nursing illnesses like malaria and an infected leg.

This is certainly not the best read about the Vietnam War. It is at best an average read. In addition, their were many spelling and other errors in this book. It certainly needed a proof read before going to press.
The author certainly developed a very negative reaction to his time spent in this war.

I enjoyed this book and almost gave it four stars because I found the author likeable and found his story to be quite a bit different from many other Vietnam experience books I've read. But, I had to mark it down because of the editing. From a form standpoint, I'm not sure when I've read a book with more misspelled/misused words. From a substance standpoint, I had a big question which the author didn't answer well for me and I think his editor should have pressed him to address it better than he did: Why was he so widely disliked and trampled on by the other soldiers? Was it because he was a virgin who didn't smoke dope? Because he wouldn't stand up for himself? Because the other guys thought he was goldbricking his medical time out of the field? Because the other guys were just total losers? I could reasonably draw any or all those inferences from what was written, but I think good editing or good writing would have forced him to address the issue directly.

It's a short book and an easy read and I don't regret reading it at all. But, I think if you're looking for a really good Vietnam book, there are lots of better choices. I'm very surprised to see all the 5 star ratings here. Maybe I'm all wet or maybe they are. Read the book and see what you think.

A short book that tells a long story. A recommended reading for people of all ages; young people to learn about the way men
and women fought to help protect the freedoms we enjoy and adults to remind them of the sacrifices men and women made to serve their country because as the more time that passes, the more we forget. All ages can learn about happenings of the war in the easy to read, colorful, and descriptive style used by author Reich. His story reminds us of the unpleasantness of a soldier's life and should be read by those who benefited and by those who need to be reminded of the sacrifices made by the combat soldier.
Discover the real story of the Vietnam War from a man who fought in it and made the best of the situation. I am appreciative and thankful for people like the author who served their country and to the author for sharing his not-so-pleasant experiences by writing about them in a day by day account that helps the reader learn the real story.

Rockets Like Rain: A Year In Vietnam is the memoir of a soldier who survived the Vietnam War when ten of his fellows (all from the small town of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin) were killed. Taut, powerful, unforgettable, and at its core very frightening, Dale Reich's Rockets Like Rain is a clear portrayal of the horrors of war and the unspeakable demands made upon a generation. Highly recommended for military buffs in general, and students of the Viet Nam conflict in particular.

A friend gave me Rockets Like Rain as a gift. Not liking "war stories", I opened the book with hesitation. From the first paragraph, where Reich is kicked out of the university, I was hooked. Reich conveys the atrocities of war with passion and kindness. His strong writing style decribes life in the field, without the usual unsavory details and four letter words. As a woman, I found this particularly enjoyable.

Rockets Like Rain is a classic memoir which should be required reading for middle and high school students. It would truly help them understand history.

Picture a soldier, a draftee and combat correspondent, under the protective arm of the Army's Public Information Office, facing near certain death just days prior to the completion of his one year tour of duty in Vietnam, and a mere 72 hours before his final departure from Duc Pho. The soldier, in fact, is closest to death during those few hours, while buffered by the firebases surrounding his brigade headquarters, than at any time during the year of his enlistment. Enemy rockets rain down like fireworks as a sendoff.

That soldier is Dale Reich and his story, ROCKETS LIKE RAIN, reads like a letter home written by a young and lonely and frightened recruit. The year is 1969 and the place is Vietnam where death has no "moratorium". It is always in the air -- a malevolent presence, one whose spectral face a soldier might not even glimpse before the falling of its axe. Vietnam, we are reminded, was a place where death could come as easily in the form of friendly fire as from bullets fired purposely, or randomly, by the enemy.

From reading Reich's vivid account, told movingly in simple and unadorned language, one gains an understanding that people, caught in the maelstrom of a war, devoid of direction or mature leadership, can be warped beyond recognition. Vietnam, Reich tells us, was a place where every soldier's individual craziness had room to grow, in moist, fertile soil, into full blown madness. (Note: Dale Reich was a co-editor of the official newspaper of the 11th Infantry Brigade of the Americal division, the one which produced the My Lai Massacre.)

One also learns that the individual soldier could also exercise reason and caution, and even strive to be removed from action in the killing fields. It was Reich's struggle to resist the insanity that makes one realize that not every new and inexperienced soldier is automatically a killing machine.

Though painful to read, ROCKETS LIKE RAIN delivers a powerful message and a necessary reminder to those of us who are currently counting statistics about Afghanistan, and who think we may, with the passage of time, be able to put our nightmares about the carnage of war safely aside. It reminds us forcefully that war -- any war -- however conducted or concluded, lives on in the memories and lives of our veterans, and that those memories deserve a respectful forum.

I am grateful to Dale Reich to be so reminded.

A truly eye opening view of that forgotten war in Viet Nam. Dale Reich's realistic portrayal of his months as a front line soldier put the reader there too. I could visualize the unbearable surroundings and constant fear felt by the soldiers. This book enhanced the respect I have for those who had and have to endure what Reich did. My appreciation and praise to Dale for his sincere and successful effort in the production of Rockets Like Rain.

For anyone who was alive during the Vietnam war era, or for someone who seeks a sense of what that war meant to Americans at the time, this is a "must read". "Rockets Like Rain" is more than the story of one man's experiences in Vietnam. I am sure those who were there will appreciate Mr. Reich's ability to articulate the sense of duty and bravado that was overtaken by a sense of futility, fear and basic instinct for survival, that was the experience of many. Some, like me, successfully "surfed" the deferment loopholes, or just plain got lucky when the lottery system was implemented and thereby avoided the horror of going to war. Never-the-less,our experience included the apprehensions, fears and anxieties; the uncertainty of our futures and the questioning of our country's motivations and integrity. This is my recollection of the Vietnam era; one that Mr. Reich "fleshes out" in the early chapters of "Rockets Like Rain". Read this Book!

Dale Reich grew up 40 miles west of me, attended the same college I did, and was enough years older than me that he went to Vietnam and I only had to worry that I might in a few years. It was with these thoughts that I began reading Rockets Like Rain.

The book is not long, and I read it in a few sittings. I found myself staying up one night because I had to find out what happened on the author's first patrol. The book describes Vietnam and the experiences the author had there in a way that made me feel like I was on patrol, or just passing time with him, but it also tells what went on inside the author's head as he made it through his tour and how he was changed by it.

In the preface, the author says that the book was written so others could "...better understand what Vietnam was like for a typical draftee..." The preface continues, "Its an honest and accurate account that many people will find surprising and many others will find disturbing." If these were Dale Reich's goals when he wrote the book, then he succeeded! After reading Rockets like Rain, I WAS surprised and disturbed by what I missed in Vietnam.