Customer Reviews

Suicide Charlie: A Vietnam War Story

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This book was the first one I ever read on the subject, having avoided books about the war up to that point. But when I came accross a description of it in a library trade publication, curiosity got the better of me.
I served in the same division as Norm Russell, during the same time period. Like him, I served in a mortar platoon. His descriptions of the conditions, attitudes and reactions were in many respects identical to mine.
I highly recommend this book to those interested in first-person accounts of combat service in Vietnam during the time period of 1968-69.

I picked this book up from a library. I started reading it on an airplane. Once I started reading it, I didn't stop. I read the whole book at once, because it really captivated me. Russell's descriptions are full of anguish, yet so real. A truly excellent book of a time when all hell broke loose.

I first read _Suicide Charlie_ in highschool and even though I was kinda naive and immature back then I still liked it. The book has real-life characters who's names have not been changed and it tells of the damaging effects of war on a person's psyche, heart, and inner being.

I attended Phillips University in Oklahoma in 1971 when a man came to visit our campus. He was a veteran and stayed in the dorm room next to mine while he checked out Phillips U. I recall the man but do not recall his name. One night I stayed up and talked to him at length about his military experience. He told me that he joined up to avoid the draft and was selected to attend Officer Candidate School. He was commissioned as an artillery Lieutenant and was sent to the 25th Infantry Division on the Cambodian border. He told a chilling tale of a battle he called Frontier City. In 1972 I joined the Army and spent a year in Vietnam as a medic in Pleiku. Years later I picked up the book Suicide Charlie and noticed that the author, Norman Russell, attended Army Basic Training at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the same as me. Russell tells his story in wonderful first person prose that kept me riveted to the pages. As I read Russell’s account of the battle at Patrol Base Frontier City I had a strange feeling that I had heard the story before and suddenly remembered the former Lieutenant that told me this same story in 1971. Russell even mentions the artillery officer reacting to the NVA attack and lowering his guns to shoot point blank at NVA soldiers charging through a breach in the parameter. This was the same man that had told me his story. This is a wonderful book about one man’s personal experience with war. One of the best I ever read.

I bought this book in a store (sorry Amazon) on a whim. It was my first non-fiction infantry book. The title intrigued me. I could't put it down. It was well written, and contained savageness, compassion and hard reality like nothing in my cushie world. I'm now a big fan of infantry type memoirs.

I picked this book up pretty naive on the subject of the Vietnam War. I had just finished studying it in my world history class and it had totally intrigued me. This book gives a great, real-life outlook on the war. Norman Russell goes into great deal on just how he felt before, during, and after the war. The Vietnam War is a dark part in US history, but we should all read about it, and learn as much as we can from it- this book is a great tool to do so! Pick up this book and read it! You'll love it!

Russell recounts his life in the Vietnam-era US Army from induction to post-discharge years. He makes no pretense that he hates the military nor does he hide the fact that he was/is a pot-smoking, anti-establisment hippie. Buy this book only if you are well read in the history of the Vietnam war from many different aspects, but do not take it solely as factual from Russell's perspective as he admits he was stoned or spaced out much of the time whether in the field or in the rear on R&R.
We all suffered some psychological after effects from that damn war, but the vast majority of us got on with our normal lives after we got back to the world. Russell is hopelessly caught in his own time warp from Vietnam. He has a difficult time maintaining focus and quite often rambles to the point it is hard to follow his story and very often inserts flashbacks which totally lack continuity with his subject.

I know the Sgt. Miller that is in this book.

Norman does a great job at describing him to the T. Sgt. Miller says the book, during the time when Norman was there until the time that he left Vietnam was about as accurate as could be expected.

A few things that happened during the battle of Mole City (concerning Sgt. Miller) that would have been impossible for Norman to get exactly correct or know about in the heat of the battle.

Knowing how bad it was going to get, he put a couple cases of grenades behind his bunker, not the M-79 grenade launcher. During the battle he would shoot the M-60 until he was out of ammo, he would then go in back of the bunker, calling for more ammo and start throwing grenades, after holding them for a couple seconds without the spoon so he could get air bursts. He would throw grenades and fire his M-16 until more ammo arrived. At one point in the battle he ran over to the next bunker that was not firing and found that the 3 new guys inside were not shooting because the Lieutenant had not come by to tell them it was okay to fire. He wasn't happy and I won't put in writing everything he said, but he did tell a tall skinny guy (he believes was from Texas) to come with him and told the 2 remaining guys to start shooting.

He received his 2nd Purple heart as well as a Silver Star at Mole City and flew out after the battle was over. A couple days later he was State side with no cool down time. One thing that does still get to him is that someone stole a captured pistol from him shortly before he got on the chopper.

Norman, if you read this, I know Sgt. Miller would like to talk to you sometime. He could give you a bunch of information about the previous 11 months. If there is someway I can contact you, I will get the information to you, so you can talk to him. I call him Sgt. Miller because you didn't put his name in print and I think it may be best to leave his first name off the Internet, but if you can figure out a way that we can talk, you will know he is the same Sgt. Miller.