Austin Cheatum
20 July 2016
U.S. History
Book Review “The Killing Zone: My Life in The Vietnam War” is not an argument for or against the Vietnam war. It is simply a personal account of infantryman and a lieutenant from 1967 to 1968 during the Vietnam War. Before I read this book, I understood the Vietnam war to be one of the most traumatizing wars if not the most traumatizing war in the history of our nation. Fredrick Downs, the author of the book, was the lieutenant who was assigned to lead Alpha One Six. Reading this book, you will see the day to day experiences of his platoon. Fredrick was excited to become a soldier for his country but didn’t realize the pain and suffering that is inevitable while at war.
Downs and his platoon alternate between the searching of jungles on destroy missions and the assignment of watching the three small bridges, labeled “101, 102, and 103”. It is early in this command that the first casualties under his watch occur. They came across many obstacles through their journey such as: mines, booby traps, ambushes, frags (grenades), scorching heat, monsoon rains, air assaults, tunnel complexes, digging up graves, etc. Immediately when they entered the jungle, struggles began. They were attacked a swarm of hornets. Shortly after, they were plotting and making a strategy to drop their “superior firepower” onto the Vietnamese and it dawned on them that they should do leach check. Downs ended up having three leaches sucked onto his body. He assumed there wouldn’t be any because they were not near water or the stream yet, but they were sadly mistaken. They encountered many dinks while going through the jungle. A dink is a Vietnamese soldier. Another name for a Vietnamese soldier is a gook.
Fredrick and his platoon connected on an emotional level. They were so far away from home. A mere conversation was a highlight to a day. They