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Brown Water Runs Red My Year as an Advisor to the Vietnamese Navy Junk Force eBook Bob Andretta

Download As PDF : Brown Water Runs Red My Year as an Advisor to the Vietnamese Navy Junk Force eBook Bob Andretta

Those heady days at the Naval Academy in Annapolis just four years earlier now seem so long ago. Here he is, lying face down in a muddy ditch on some remote and forsaken island in the Cua Dai River in Vietnam in the middle of the night. He has been blown off a boat, and is evading capture. Bullets hitting the river water near him as he desperately sought a bit of land, and now wizzing over his head keep him aware that his location is known to his tormentors. He assumes that he will momentarily be dead. He is exhausted, bleeding from wounds, and the mosquitoes seem plentiful enough to carry him away. He can hear the staccato voices of an enemy search party looking for him. He is nearly in tears, wondering if they will simply shoot him, drive a bayonet through his back, or worse, take him captive with years of torture and agony ahead. Within moments they were directly above him. As he holds his breath tightly, he cannot stop his heart from racing wildly. Can they possibly hear that?? He can now even smell them. This surely could be it.

This book recounts that night and the other 365 days that the author spent as a U.S. Navy advisor to the Vietnamese Navy Junk Force. Bob Andretta’s assignment in Vietnam turned out to be as dangerous, or even more so, than he had anticipated. For him, it was the best and the worst of experiences. It thrust him into the role more of a Marine than a naval officer. He had to scramble to try to make up for the fact that he really was not prepared or trained like a Marine, notwithstanding the six months at the advisors’ school. The combat experiences were astonishing. The violence and the danger were disconcerting. Throughout all those experiences, Bob grew to love the Vietnamese people and the activities he was able to undertake to help them. Looking back now, Bob has no idea why he was allowed to survive when so many other Americans did not come home to live out their lives. But he did, and this is the story of that most interesting, challenging, perplexing, terrifying, gratifying, life-changing year of his life.

“Bob Andretta is that rare individual who combined aggressiveness as a warrior and empathy for the Vietnamese people. As an advisor to the Vietnamese Navy in a remote and dangerous outpost he pursued the war with innovation and vigor. As a human being, he found ways to minimize the impacts of the war on non-combatants. Both qualities frequently led him into dangerous situations. While the U.S. military command was counting bodies, Bob was winning hearts and minds through his self-initiated and compassionate aid to civilians.”
Doug Burgess, Officer-in-Charge, U.S. Navy Swift Boat

“Bob Andretta has combined his good humor and exceptional writing capability to create one of the great memoirs of the Vietnam War. Coming off tours as a division officer on two guided missile destroyers, he was assigned to the Vietnamese Navy's junk force as an advisor. His vivid portrayals of the pace of life on his base, the sharply defined personalities surrounding him, and the stress of combat all bring his year “in country” to life. Full of insightful, sometimes humorous, and often searing observations, this is a book for anyone interested in a little known piece of the larger Vietnam conflict. Bob’s book is a must read!”
James R. Stark, RADM, USN (Ret)

“Andretta has written a genuine thriller about his 1969 tour of duty in Vietnam. His descriptions of the events and dangers of warfare on the Cua Dai River are truly memorable. Andretta’s concern for his fellow combatants and the Vietnamese people is clearly evident.”
Colonel (Ret) L. Nick Lacey, USAF

Brown Water Runs Red My Year as an Advisor to the Vietnamese Navy Junk Force eBook Bob Andretta

There are now several excellent memoirs of the Vietnam War written by those who served in that ongoing conflict. This superb addition to that genre is perhaps the best of the best. The author exhibits amazing recall of an entire series of scenarios in which he found himself as an American advisor to the Vietnamese navy(aided by the fact that he wrote short essays on some of the events 15 years ago). The book is a highly satisfying blend of stories beginning with his arrival (for which he has received no practical training) being essentially dumped into neck-deep water off the base to which he was being sent) to dramatic battle scenes from which he barely escapes. He finds precious little administrative support and has to learn how to cope with the South Vietnamese who may, or may not, be all on the U.S. side and the weather and incoming fire in the middle of nearly every night. However, what I enjoyed most was Andretta's keen insight into the Vietnamese culture and his interaction with the civilians in the villages and hamlets surrounding his remote base. His wit comes through on every page (he refers to one of his superior officers as "Colonel Starch"). There are numerous photos with captions throughout the book to assist the reader in imagining the locales and people with which he is operating (can you picture what a "hooch" looks like? Bottom line: This book fills an important niche in our ability to understand this contentious, and undeclared, war and the personnel who ended up in a desperate fight for survival. Winning was never an option. After reading this book, you will understand why. You will have a greater appreciation of everyone who fought there on both sides. Brown Water Runs Red is far more informative than any textbook on the Vietnam War, and a lot more enjoyable. Read this book!!!

Product details File Size 17544 KB Print Length 430 pages Page Numbers Source ISBN 1515342867 Publication Date September 10, 2015 Sold by  Digital Services LLC Language English ASIN B0158PXOF4

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Brown Water Runs Red My Year as an Advisor to the Vietnamese Navy Junk Force eBook Bob Andretta Reviews

Brown Water Runs Red by Bob Andretta is a terrific narrative of his action-packed river patrol experiences with a compassionate view of the plight of the Vietnamese people. Having served a tour aboard a destroyer in the classical blue water navy, Andretta’s next tour, naval advisory duty in Vietnam, was as different as night is from day. Classical shipboard life offered three square meals per day, a hot shower, and a clean bunk. Advisory duty at a remote Vietnamese coastal group base promised nothing, not even a reliable source of safe drinking water. The one thing he could count on was that hostile automatic weapons fire could be expected anywhere along the river network that he and his Vietnamese companions were assigned to patrol in their slow, wooden junks. This book is filled with accounts of engagement with Viet Cong forces, many of which will leave the reader on the edge of his or her seat. In some cases, Andretta wonders if it is possible to get any lower to the ground, and in others he is just plain angry as he stands on the deck of a junk oblivious to the bullets winging past. On the lighter side, Andretta recounts his immersion in various facets of Vietnamese culture, including language, dress, diet, etiquette, religion, family life, childbirth, and hygiene. He depicts the satisfaction and fulfillment of advisory duty and the strong bond that developed between him and his Vietnamese counterpart, but he also lays bare the concerns, such as the vulnerability of the base to being overrun during the night with no avenue of escape, the challenge of getting safe drinking water, food, ammunition, supplies and spare parts, and the uncertainty whether you are trusted and kept fully informed by your Vietnamese counterpart. He conveys the importance of establishing relationships with other nearby Americans, such as USN swift boat drivers, USMC CAP teams, USMC artillery fire base personnel, US Army forward air controllers, US Army sector advisors, USN SEAL teams, and medical staff in Danang. He also describes his efforts to bring rudimentary medical care to the local villagers, especially with regard to the needs of women giving birth in primitive conditions, illustrating how much can be accomplished when working without chain-of-command authority or funding. He explains how peasants, who only wanted to be left alone to work their rice paddies, could be driven to support the Viet Cong because of insensitive or reckless, deadly actions by supposedly friendly US, South Vietnamese, or South Korean military forces. This book is a "must read" for anyone who served as an advisor to the South Vietnamese military, wants to gain a better understanding of what advisory life was like, or admires the daring and resourcefulness of C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower. This 408-page book is written in a clear, approachable manner, and it includes a glossary to help explain location names and the unavoidable US Navy jargon and Vietnamese language terminology that is sprinkled throughout.

Dan Pence
Former LT, USN and Senior Naval Advisor
Coastal Group 14, August 1970 - June 1971
There are many books about the Vietnam War. Most of them address the realities of serving with a US unit in one of the military services. A few books give us a glimpse of life as an advisor with one of the Vietnamese forces. Even fewer books tell the story of serving in Vietnam and interacting with the local people as human beings. This aspect of the Vietnam War is covered extremely well as the author finds himself not only fighting the war, but also worrying about and caring for the local civilians near his military base at Coastal Group 14. Bob Andretta demonstrates great personal courage as he risks his life over and over in support of his Vietnamese counterparts. His compassion for and contributions to the lives of the local population earn him a position of great admiration and respect. His professional competence and strong leadership skills allow him to operate effectively at all levels of the chain of command and across military services as he advises the Vietnamese Navy Junk Force along South Vietnam's rivers. Bob's unique story is well presented in this excellent, must read book. The book includes solid research to complement the personal experiences of the author and a fine sense of humor to balance the tragic, realities of war.
There are now several excellent memoirs of the Vietnam War written by those who served in that ongoing conflict. This superb addition to that genre is perhaps the best of the best. The author exhibits amazing recall of an entire series of scenarios in which he found himself as an American advisor to the Vietnamese navy(aided by the fact that he wrote short essays on some of the events 15 years ago). The book is a highly satisfying blend of stories beginning with his arrival (for which he has received no practical training) being essentially dumped into neck-deep water off the base to which he was being sent) to dramatic battle scenes from which he barely escapes. He finds precious little administrative support and has to learn how to cope with the South Vietnamese who may, or may not, be all on the U.S. side and the weather and incoming fire in the middle of nearly every night. However, what I enjoyed most was Andretta's keen insight into the Vietnamese culture and his interaction with the civilians in the villages and hamlets surrounding his remote base. His wit comes through on every page (he refers to one of his superior officers as "Colonel Starch"). There are numerous photos with captions throughout the book to assist the reader in imagining the locales and people with which he is operating (can you picture what a "hooch" looks like? Bottom line This book fills an important niche in our ability to understand this contentious, and undeclared, war and the personnel who ended up in a desperate fight for survival. Winning was never an option. After reading this book, you will understand why. You will have a greater appreciation of everyone who fought there on both sides. Brown Water Runs Red is far more informative than any textbook on the Vietnam War, and a lot more enjoyable. Read this book!!!