Download When We Walked Above the Clouds: A Memoir of Vietnam AudioBook Free
The mythology of the Green Berets, of their clandestine, special businesses, has been celebrated in story and song. The truth, however, could be quite different. This story of 1 soldier's experience, the day-to-day reduction and drudgery of Green Beret H. Lee Barnes, uncovers the daily grind and tranquil desperation behind polished-for-public-consumption accounts of military heroics. In When We Walked Above the Clouds, Barnes instructs what it was like to be considered a Green Beret, first in the Dominican Republic through the civil battle of 1965 and then at A-107, Tra Bong, Vietnam, where he eventually offered as adviser to a combat recon platoon consisting chiefly of Montagnard irregulars. Though "nothing incredible," as Barnes observed it, his calendar months of simply doing the particular mission demanded make for sobering reading: the mundane business of getting rid of rats, cleaning weapons, and building bunkers makes the level of patrols and problems all the more harrowing. A lot more than anything, however, Barnes' story is one of reduction - of morale lost to alcoholism, teammates lost to friendly flames, missions aborted, and missions endlessly and futilely repeated. And yet from this dark qualifications, Barnes graciously honors the tranquil professionals whose service, overshadowed by the outsized story of Vietnam, nonetheless taken the day.
