Why a Soldier?: A Signal Corpsman's Tour from Vietnam to the Moscow Hot Line [Paperback]

David Fitz-Enz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 3, 1995

He was one of the best, Airborne, proud to serve his country and fight its toughest war--in the hell that was Vietnam.

Known to all as "Fitz," Signal Corps officer David Fitz-Enz served two tours in Vietnam. He was a soldier, combat photographer, and platoon leader, fighting America's cruelest war--from the VC-infested rice paddies of the Mekong Delta to the dreaded Ia Drang Valley, where the enemy ruled the night.

Dispensing with traditional, sluggish chains of command, the Signal Corps developed a rapid-response system based on greater flexibility, cutting-edge communications technology, and interdependence between the branches of the military during the war. Now commanders in the field were able to call in artillery, air strikes, and reinforcements at a moment's notice. Fitz-Enz himself orchestrated the first-ever hook up over tactical systems between the President in the Oval Office and a general in the Vietnam jungle. The only book of its kind, WHY A SOLDIER? gives us the inside view of the Corps as it launched an exciting new era in strategic and tactical communications that set the groundwork for all future military operations.


From the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

He was one of the best, Airborne, proud to serve his country and fight its toughest war--in the hell that was Vietnam.

Known to all as "Fitz," Signal Corps officer David Fitz-Enz served two tours in Vietnam. He was a soldier, combat photographer, and platoon leader, fighting America's cruelest war--from the VC-infested rice paddies of the Mekong Delta to the dreaded Ia Drang Valley, where the enemy ruled the night.

Dispensing with traditional, sluggish chains of command, the Signal Corps developed a rapid-response system based on greater flexibility, cutting-edge communications technology, and interdependence between the branches of the military during the war. Now commanders in the field were able to call in artillery, air strikes, and reinforcements at a moment's notice. Fitz-Enz himself orchestrated the first-ever hook up over tactical systems between the President in the Oval Office and a general in the Vietnam jungle. The only book of its kind, WHY A SOLDIER? gives us the inside view of the Corps as it launched an exciting new era in strategic and tactical communications that set the groundwork for all future military operations. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Col. David G. Fitz-Enz was a regular army officer for thirty years, retiring in 1993. Among his decorations are the Soldier's Medal for Heroism, the Bronze Star for Valor with four oak leaf clusters, the Air Medal, and the Legion of Merit with three oak leaf clusters. He is a graduate of Marquette University, the Army Command and General Staff College, and the Army War College. He is published in Military Review, the army's professional journal.

Colonel Fitz-Enz is the national president of the American Military Retirees Association and vice president of Cannonade Film Works, Inc.


From the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (January 3, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345482255
• ISBN-13: 978-0345482259
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 1 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,388,562 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An insiders view of the good and the bad of the army, June 16, 2001

By A Customer

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This review is from: Why a Soldier?: A Signal Corpsman's Tour from Vietnam to the Moscow Hot Line (Mass Market Paperback)

A compelling read that I couldn't put down. He ranges back and forth across the soldiers, generals, his family and his personal reactions to his field experiences during two tours in combat and several other interesting general staff assignments. We feel the humanness of the army, the frustrations and the triumphs of soldiers and officers trying to do their jobs. His narrative cruises through his career with a smooth flow of technical challenges and human issues written in a straightforward, nontechnical style. A great little book. I hope Fitz writes more.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Combat Signal Soldier, April 25, 2001

By 

john wagner (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Why a Soldier?: A Signal Corpsman's Tour from Vietnam to the Moscow Hot Line (Mass Market Paperback)

Col. Fitz-Enz's account of his time in Vietnam is a very entertaining look at a seldom-explored profession within the Army- that of a communications officer. While the Colonel started out as a photographer -not your typical career field for the army, but certainly a good one -his experience as first a platoon leader then company commander gives us a small look at what it was like back then; funny how some things have yet to change. His book is not set in a strict chronological order, but you get a feeling of how events transpired and their effect on his career. I highly recommend this book for those who have been or are contemplating careers as Signal officers.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic of Vietnam service--though as funny as MASH, January 20, 2001

By 

Michael (NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Why a Soldier?: A Signal Corpsman's Tour from Vietnam to the Moscow Hot Line (Mass Market Paperback)

WHY A SOLDIER is a serious book about life in a grim war (make no mistake about that). But it's also a very funny book. If I were a Hollywood producer, I'd snap up the rights and adapt it to the screen as MASH GOES TO VIETNAM. The scenes are all there: for example, (page 14) the pompous major who strutted out to his private latrine and found himself - literally-up to his neck in s**t. Or, (page 243) the up-and-coming lieutenant who found himself-in the line of duty-locked naked in a sauna-hot incinerator room with four equally-naked enlisted females, five sweaty young soldiers working together to safeguard the security of the country! The characters made the original MASH, and there are equally oddball real characters in WHY A SOLDIER? Take the captain (page 324) who suddenly inherited not only money but a prosperous pub in Ireland. But he was only midway through his Vietnam tour, and wanted to live long enough to enjoy his inheritance. His solution? Sleeping in an metal box-until one morning he couldn't get out. I don't want to give away all the good stuff, just one more among many: young Lt. Fitz-Enz, leading a troop of 105 soldiers in battle-garb complete with helmets and (unloaded) weapons arrived at Dulles Airport outside Washington, DC, en route to Vietnam, only to find that somehow the Army and the airline had overlooked them ( page166). That's for starters; then the rumors began among the civilians in the terminal: the soldiers were taking over the airport, the soldiers were about to race downtown and seize the capitol and the TV stations and end the Vietnam War. WHY A SOLDIER? reminds me not only of MASH but also of Winston Churchill's MY EARLY YEARS, both in the sharply written battle scenes, as well as the descriptions of military life at the far end of a supply-chain. As in Churchill's classic, Col. Fitz-Enz brings to life the pressures on junior officers in a rigid hierarchy in which those further up the command chain are not necessarily the best, the brightest, nor even the most psychologically well-balanced. Yet the idealistic young lieutenant we meet early in the book, arriving for his first tour in Vietnam, stuck it out-as he planned from the start-and put a full 30 years into the military. Why? Many reasons emerge as you read here, but one above all: because Fitz-Enz saw the military as a profession-the honorable profession that it has before the abuses of Vietnam-and can be again. So long as there are rogue leaders in the world, we'll need a solid military to protect against them. That, as Col. Fitz-Enz points out, is WHY A SOLDIER.