Eye of the Tiger

Memoir of a United States Marine, Third Force Recon Company, Vietnam

“We live together under the thick canopy, each searching for the other; the same leeches and mosquitoes that feed on our blood feed on his blood.”

John Edmund Delezen felt a kinship with the people he was instructed to kill in Vietnam; they were all at the mercy of the land. His memoir begins when he enlisted in the Marine Corps and was sent to Vietnam in March of 1967. He volunteered for the Third Force Recon Company, whose job it was to locate and infiltrate enemy lines undetected and map their locations and learn details of their status. The duty was often painful both physically and mentally. He was stricken with malaria in November of 1967, wounded by a grenade in February of 1968, and hit by a bullet later that summer. He remained in Vietnam until December, 1968.

Delezen writes of Vietnam as a man humbled by a mysterious country and horrified by acts of brutality. The land was his enemy as much as the Vietnamese soldiers. He vividly describes the three-canopy jungle with birds and monkeys overhead that could be heard but not seen, venomous snakes hiding in trees and relentless bugs that fed on men. He recalls stumbling onto a pit of rotting Vietnamese bodies left behind by American forces, and days when fierce hunger made a bag of plasma seem like an enticing meal. He writes of his fallen comrades and the images of war that still pervade his dreams.

©2015 John Edmund Delezen (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing

Listener

Great account of what long range patrols in Vietnam were like... the author goes into great detail making you feel as if you’re there with him, a good book, I liked it a lot

Great listen

It is amazing and heartbreaking what our troops had to endure in the Vietnam war. God-bless you.

Thank you for sharing

Many thanks to the author for sharing his story. Very descriptive and good explanations for terms for those of us non-military. Most definitely worth reading.

Great story, bad narration

The author does get a bit poetic but I loved his writing style. He really conveys what it’s like, you can feel the heat, hate the bugs, and fear the enemy.

The narrator reads with such monotone that I had to stop listening from time to time. This would be a good book to actually read. Narrator pretty much ruined the book.

Great book, fell a bit short at the end

I like this book Which is an amazingly detailed story about life in the jungle as a reconnaissance soldier. The end comes rather abruptly and some detail about meeting his comrades years later. I would read it again and probably will! I just wanted more.