Bravo Troop: A Forward Observer's Vietnam Memoir

Bravo Troop: A Forward Observer's Vietnam Memoir

During the first half of 1969, Bravo Troop, 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry, 25th Infantry Division operated northwest of Saigon in the vicinity of Go Dau Ha, fighting in 15 actions on the Cambodian border, in the Boi Loi Woods, the Hobo Woods and Michelin Rubber Plantation and on the outskirts of Tay Ninh City. In that time, Bravo Troop saw 10 percent of its average field strength killed while inflicting much heavier losses on the enemy. This memoir vividly recounts those six months of intense armored cavalry combat in Vietnam through the eyes of an artillery forward observer, highlighting his fire direction techniques and the routines and frustrations of searching for the enemy and chaos of finding him. “In recounting what he saw and did, Watson tells enlightening stories about large battles…Watson taught me more than I thought I knew about being a soldier in the Vietnam War. His recollection of an in-country 25th Infantry new-guy course is eye-opening and excellent. His flowing accounts of maneuvers in the field taught me new knowledge. I frequently referred to the book’s excellent map of Bravo’s operating area.”― VVA Veteran Retired attorney William Watson was commissioned in the Army upon graduation from Princeton University in 1965 and went on active duty after graduating from Harvard Law School in 1968. He lives in Denver, Colorado.