Customer Reviews

Where We Were in Vietnam: A Comprehensive Guide to the Firebases, Military Installations and Naval Vessels of the Vietnam War, 1945-1975

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mr. Kelly has produced one of the finest referrence books ever compiled about the Vietnam War. I am amazed at his depth of research. I sat with the book and challenged it by thinking of some of the most obscure places I was at in Vietnam that I believed would be overlooked by any reasearcher. He had not only located everyone of them by the nicknames given them by our troops but also gave their proper Vietnamese title!
I have worked with Vietnam Veterans for the past nineteen years primarily in securing benefits for them from the Depatment of Veterans' Affairs. This book is a godsend to anyone assiting vetrans in the VA claims process. It is a one stop reference in the art of obtaining information (locations, unit and personal military records) necessary to support a claim for benefits. It is far more valuable then Stanton's " Vietnam Order of Battle".
This is the book that every Vietnam Vietnam veteran or human service agency that provides service to Vietnam Veterans should own. I have a very large collection, over 180 lineal feet of shelving, of fiction and non-fiction books about Vietnam and the men and women who fought there. I now consider Mike Kelley's non-ficiton work the "Best on my bookshelf'.

In addition to tons of raw data, there are suggestions for further research, unit web sites, a glossary, as well as information on acquiring maps and (if you're flush with cash) some unit rosters and unit reports).Like any reference work, no reader will need most of it, but the parts that matter to you or me are worth the price (we still like dictionaries and phonebooks, ignoring most of the entries). As Michael Kelley himself writes, readers will surely find many errors and omissions; veterans checking out their own unit and AO can help make the next edition even more useful. The book is rich with unexpectedly interesting material.

For starters I am the webmaster of 25th Aviation Battalion. I am the keeper of the records for our unit and its associated history. In the 25th Infantry Division they moved Fire support Bases almost weekly so what was Buell I over there is now Buell III over here. Trying to keep track of on any date what was where was almost impossible. I have the fire support base maps, but that was on a given day during a five year period. Michael has simplified this job a good bit. Since I had the XY coordinates of all the bases from after action reports it was relatively easy to fnd them on michaels system. To write the proper review of this book would take a book to do it, so Michael keep up the fire this one here is a winner and a must for serious researchers. I to know the Labor of love.

As an Army veteran who served three tours in Vietnam and Cambodia, is a student of Southeast Asian history and one who has well over 200 non-fiction books related to Vietnam in his library, I believe that "Where We Were" is surely one of the best reference resources that I own.

For those who served in Vietnam or those with a interest in the history of the U.S. involvement there, "Where We Were" is an indispensable piece for your library. This book is a monumental compilation of firebases, landing zones, airfields and navel vessels with over 10,000 entries. Not only do most of these entries have grid coordinates but the author has taken the effort to triangulate many of their locations with other know sites such as towns, firebases, airfields, etc. This makes looking up specific sites on a map a very simple matter. No other book I own goes to this detail to make it so useful. This book is nothing short of outstanding. Its like having a piece of the National Archives right on your bookshelf.

And if that wasn't enough, there is a fairly comprehensive Internet guide and as well as a recommended reading list. These are real bonuses for those intent on doing further research. The writing of this book was, in this reader's opinion, a true labor of love. It is a must for those who were there and for the serious researcher. My hat goes off to Mr. Kelly for this painstaking piece of history.

As one of the webmasters of the Vietnam Veteran's Home Page... I get a lot of questions about names of places, place locations and relationships, map coordinates and other details that a researcher needs or a memory has forgotten. Mike Kelley's book is a godsend for finding and verifying most all of those details. It will undoubtedly take its place in history as the definitive guide to where US and allied troops really were and when they were there. Bonus features like the extensive glossary, maps, name lists, and copious references make this book indispensable.

Vietnam had no fronts, but it sure had perimeters. Everywhere. Those perimeters defined a whole generation of soldiers. I thought most of that was lost forever. I was wrong.

If you served in Vietnam, chances are that the places where you hung your web-gear on a hook are described in Mike Kelley's amazing work. Some of what he lists includes coordinates of places that were just mud berms, sandbags and fighting positions.

It is obvious that Mike Kelley did more than years of detailed document research. He met hundreds of vets over the years, and enlisted their personal knowledge. The final product is a treasure of information. I can't imagine a Vietnam veteran not wanting a copy. This kind of reference material will be pulled off my personal library shelf every time the subject of Vietnam gets serious. No future article that references Vietnam will be written without a reality check through these pages. The glossary of "minutia" alone is worth the price.

Bill Hunt

Vietnam
1972

I have had Mike's book for some time now and have found it to be of great use to me. I served in Vietnam as an infantryman in the Australian Army and he has covered many of our battle sites as well as our base areas so for that I say well done.. I currently live and work in Vietnam so I can use it as a constant reference whenever I travel throughout the country visiting the old battlefields and other sites of interest. With all grid references given in the military grid system and the ready availability of military maps for most areas it is a most usefull piece of work.

I was a Forward Air Controller in Vietnam. When I was transferred to Thailand I was advised to destroy my maps for secutity reasons. I did and also destroyed my mission cards which coverd each air strike I controlled. After all I had my diary. Now over thirty years later as I try to write my diary in a useable form I find the notes I wrote inadequate. My memory of events doesn't match that of some of my friends. I have a large scale map but it doesn't have the firebases plotted and doesn't show the terrain as I remember it. I needed the 1:50,000 scale we used to support the ground troops. I have been looking for a set for several years but it seems all my friends destroyed theirs too. I was trying to find out how to order a set or even if they were available and had no luck until Michael Kelley's book came out. If you need a map of Vietnam for whatever reason this is the one where you can find it! Thank you M60 for your massive work. Everybody who wants to know about the Vietnam War needs this book and the maps that can be ordered from it with the coordinates to make Vietnam look like it did during the war from whatever perspective you saw it.

I would like to call your attention to this new book that has recently been distributed. The author Michael Kelley is a good friend and over the years we have assisted each other in the Vietnam historical arena. I recommend this book highly not because I am a contributor but it is a mammoth compilation of information/grid cords on named locations, LZ's, and Firebases. It essentially is an encyclopedia on our war. The book is approx 850 pages. I can assure you it represents the most complete research project possible. This book belongs in every library/archive/ researchers & Vietnam Veterans home collections.

George G. Neville, Jr. Marine Recon Vet - Vietnam

I have found that Mr. Kelley indeed did put alot of work into this book but was a bit displeased when searching for some of my old firebases that there were inaccuracies in locations and also in the units that occupied those firebases. I realize that Mr. Kelley can not have access to every piece of information but the area I was in was one of the most known of the war. Also I found that the maps were really lacking. They were ... copies that were blurry and lacking detail. Personally I did not find it totally worth the expense....