The Odyssey of Echo Company

The 1968 Tet Offensive and the Epic Battle to Survive the Vietnam War

By: Doug Stanton

Narrated by: CJ Wilson

Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

A powerful work of literary military history from the New York Times best-selling author of In Harm's Way and Horse Soldiers - the harrowing and redemptive account of an American army platoon fighting for survival during the Vietnam War.

On a single night, January 31, 1968, some 100,000 soldiers in the North Vietnamese Army attacked 36 cities throughout South Vietnam, hoping to topple that government and dislodge American forces. The 12 American boys of the recon platoon of the 101st Airborne Division, average age 19, are from small farms, California beach towns, and big cities like Chicago, and they are cast into a war they neither understand nor ultimately feel they can win. The fighting was hand-to-hand, nonstop, and waged in endless small battles that forged this group into a lifelong brotherhood of survivors. The Odyssey of Echo Company is about the young men who survived 60 days on the run from the enemy during the Tet Offensive, at the height of the Vietnam War.

Each young man lived 100 years in these days and came home to a country that did not understand, and didn't try to understand, what they had survived. They came home winners because they were alive but were losers for having fought there. When they arrived, they landed in San Francisco, took off their uniforms, and walked back into America, where they fell silent and realized that not many wanted to hear the remarkable story they had to tell - until now.

Based on hundreds of hours of interviews, dozens of detailed letters written to and from Echo Company soldiers, a huge trove of Pentagon after-action reports, and travel to the scenes of battle with the American soldiers and some of their Vietnamese enemy soldiers, The Odyssey of Echo Company breaks through the wall of time to tell this important story of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

©2017 Doug Stanton (P)2017 Simon & Schuster Audio

Amazing

Amazing, raw and real Vietnam story. If you like military history and combat stories this is one book you won’t want to skip

Outstanding and eye opening memoir.

This book was a fascinating look at what a combat Vietnam veteran went through, Before, during, and after the war.

Heart reaching

A story that pulls at your heart strings. You hear the internal struggles of a good man in a hellish situation and realize the horrible choices these people had to make. Something I will never be able to fully comprehend. I want to say thank you for this story.
Cpl. Wright
USMC

Big Payoff

Loved the whole story! There’s so much about Vietnam that wasn’t taught in schools or reported. I have a cousin that was in the 101st and served bravely, but he also suffered losses of his buddies.. and I’m sure he still thinks about “war”. Anyway the last chapter was a HUGE payoff for me and so very honest! Also a word of warning.. this is a real account of War... no sugar coating.. and not for the faint of heart. In the end I appreciate Mr Parker’s bravery AND service and those who suffered and died for a cause that is little understood to this day

Amazing, enraging and heart wrenching.

Would recommend to anyone who enjoys and can handle war books. A must read. d

Very Realistic Book

The most realistic book I think I ever listened to about the Vietnam War, and I have listened to multiple.

Great depiction of the Vietnam war from a soldiers

Very good storyline that puts you in the place of these brave men who fought and died in the Vietnam war. I especially enjoyed the follow up story of the me that returned to Vietnam almost 50 years later and came face to face with a man whom they fought against. Great book.

Just an incredible story and odyssey

So well written...actually had to put the book down a few times given how moving and stirring it was. So very well done. Am glad that Stan asked it to be written...

Well written

Sometimes shocking but that appears to be fitting given the subject. Well written to the end More of a story of one man, not the entire company

If you liked Matterhorn or The Things They Carried you will enjoy this book.

Holy shit

If you listen to this and don't get a little emotional you could be soulless.