-
If I Die in a Combat Zone
- Box Me Up and Ship Me Home
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Categories: Biographies & Memoirs, Art & Literature
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Audible Premium Plus
$14.95 a month
Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Going After Cacciato
- By: Tim O'Brien
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the 1979 National Book Award, Going After Cacciato, a classic novel of Vietnam, captures the peculiar mixture of horror and hallucination that marked that strangest of wars. In a blend of reality and fantasy, this novel tells the story of a young soldier who one day lays down his rifle and sets off on a quixotic journey from the jungles of Indochina to the streets of Paris.
-
-
Shadow Sculpture Built out of War's Debris
- By Darwin8u on 05-16-14
By: Tim O'Brien
-
The Things They Carried
- By: Tim O'Brien
- Narrated by: Bryan Cranston
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hailed by The New York Times as "a marvel of storytelling", The Things They Carried’s portrayal of the boots-on-the-ground experience of soldiers in the Vietnam War is a landmark in war writing. Now, three-time Emmy Award winner-Bryan Cranston, star of the hit TV series Breaking Bad, delivers an electrifying performance that walks the book’s hallucinatory line between reality and fiction and highlights the emotional power of the spoken word.
-
-
For all vets and those too young
- By David on 08-10-16
By: Tim O'Brien
-
In the Lake of the Woods
- By: Tim O'Brien
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a lake deep in the Minnesota woods, Kathy Wade comforts her husband John, a rising political star, after a devastating electoral defeat in which he's been pursued by rumors of the atrocities he committed in Vietnam. But it is clear that something is horribly wrong between them - too much has been hidden. Then Kathy vanishes, along with their boat.
-
-
Memory and the Erasure Thereof
- By T. Prizer on 03-05-19
By: Tim O'Brien
-
Baptism
- A Vietnam Memoir
- By: Larry Gwin
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Yale graduate who volunteered to serve his country, Larry Gwin was only 23 years old when he arrived in Vietnam in 1965. After a brief stint in the Delta, Gwin was reassigned to the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in An Khe. There, in the hotly contested Central Highlands, he served almost nine months as executive officer for Alpha Company, 2/7, fighting against crack NVA troops in some of the war's most horrific battles.
-
-
Hell of book telling a story that needs to be told
- By J LAN on 07-31-17
By: Larry Gwin
-
Things I'll Never Forget
- Memories of a Marine in Viet Nam
- By: James M. Dixon
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Things I’ll Never Forget is the story of a young high school graduate in 1965 who faces being drafted into the Army or volunteering for the Marine Corps. These are his memories of funny times, disgusting times and deadly times. The author kept a journal for an entire year; therefore many of the dates, times and places are accurate. The rest is based on memories that are forever tattooed on his brain. This is not a pro-war book, nor is it anti-war. It is the true story of what the Marine Corps was like in the late 1960’s.
-
-
Accurate Description
- By USMC VIETVET on 07-02-19
By: James M. Dixon
-
Dad's Maybe Book
- By: Tim O'Brien
- Narrated by: Tim O'Brien
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2003, already an older father, National Book Award - winning novelist Tim O’Brien resolved to give his young sons what he wished his own father had given to him - a few scraps of paper signed “Love, Dad.” Maybe a word of advice. Maybe a sentence or two about some long-ago Christmas Eve. Maybe some scattered glimpses of their rapidly aging father, a man they might never really know. For the next 15 years, the author talked to his sons on paper, as if they were adults, imagining what they might want to hear from a father who was no longer among the living.
-
-
I couldn't take it. Chapter 50 and I'm out.
- By DesmoProfundis on 01-17-20
By: Tim O'Brien
-
Going After Cacciato
- By: Tim O'Brien
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the 1979 National Book Award, Going After Cacciato, a classic novel of Vietnam, captures the peculiar mixture of horror and hallucination that marked that strangest of wars. In a blend of reality and fantasy, this novel tells the story of a young soldier who one day lays down his rifle and sets off on a quixotic journey from the jungles of Indochina to the streets of Paris.
-
-
Shadow Sculpture Built out of War's Debris
- By Darwin8u on 05-16-14
By: Tim O'Brien
-
The Things They Carried
- By: Tim O'Brien
- Narrated by: Bryan Cranston
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hailed by The New York Times as "a marvel of storytelling", The Things They Carried’s portrayal of the boots-on-the-ground experience of soldiers in the Vietnam War is a landmark in war writing. Now, three-time Emmy Award winner-Bryan Cranston, star of the hit TV series Breaking Bad, delivers an electrifying performance that walks the book’s hallucinatory line between reality and fiction and highlights the emotional power of the spoken word.
-
-
For all vets and those too young
- By David on 08-10-16
By: Tim O'Brien
-
In the Lake of the Woods
- By: Tim O'Brien
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a lake deep in the Minnesota woods, Kathy Wade comforts her husband John, a rising political star, after a devastating electoral defeat in which he's been pursued by rumors of the atrocities he committed in Vietnam. But it is clear that something is horribly wrong between them - too much has been hidden. Then Kathy vanishes, along with their boat.
-
-
Memory and the Erasure Thereof
- By T. Prizer on 03-05-19
By: Tim O'Brien
-
Baptism
- A Vietnam Memoir
- By: Larry Gwin
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Yale graduate who volunteered to serve his country, Larry Gwin was only 23 years old when he arrived in Vietnam in 1965. After a brief stint in the Delta, Gwin was reassigned to the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in An Khe. There, in the hotly contested Central Highlands, he served almost nine months as executive officer for Alpha Company, 2/7, fighting against crack NVA troops in some of the war's most horrific battles.
-
-
Hell of book telling a story that needs to be told
- By J LAN on 07-31-17
By: Larry Gwin
-
Things I'll Never Forget
- Memories of a Marine in Viet Nam
- By: James M. Dixon
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Things I’ll Never Forget is the story of a young high school graduate in 1965 who faces being drafted into the Army or volunteering for the Marine Corps. These are his memories of funny times, disgusting times and deadly times. The author kept a journal for an entire year; therefore many of the dates, times and places are accurate. The rest is based on memories that are forever tattooed on his brain. This is not a pro-war book, nor is it anti-war. It is the true story of what the Marine Corps was like in the late 1960’s.
-
-
Accurate Description
- By USMC VIETVET on 07-02-19
By: James M. Dixon
-
Dad's Maybe Book
- By: Tim O'Brien
- Narrated by: Tim O'Brien
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2003, already an older father, National Book Award - winning novelist Tim O’Brien resolved to give his young sons what he wished his own father had given to him - a few scraps of paper signed “Love, Dad.” Maybe a word of advice. Maybe a sentence or two about some long-ago Christmas Eve. Maybe some scattered glimpses of their rapidly aging father, a man they might never really know. For the next 15 years, the author talked to his sons on paper, as if they were adults, imagining what they might want to hear from a father who was no longer among the living.
-
-
I couldn't take it. Chapter 50 and I'm out.
- By DesmoProfundis on 01-17-20
By: Tim O'Brien
-
A Rumor of War
- By: Philip Caputo
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When it first appeared, A Rumor of War brought home to American readers, with terrifying vividness and honesty, the devastating effects of the Vietnam War on the soldiers who fought there. And while it is a memoir of one young man's experiences and therefore deeply personal, it is also a book that speaks powerfully to today's students about the larger themes of human conscience, good and evil, and the desperate extremes men are forced to confront in any war.
-
-
The Reality of the U.S in the Vietnam War
- By Glenn on 09-10-12
By: Philip Caputo
-
We Few
- US Special Forces in Vietnam
- By: Nick Brokhausen
- Narrated by: George Spelvin
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Green Beret's gripping memoir of American Special Forces in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.
-
-
Is there such a thing as funny war genre ??
- By dax on 11-04-18
By: Nick Brokhausen
-
Loon
- A Marine Story
- By: Jack McLean
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Kids like me didn't go to Vietnam", writes Jack McLean in his must-listen memoir. Raised in suburban New Jersey, he attended the Phillips Academy in Andover, MA, but decided to put college on hold. After graduation in the spring of 1966, faced with the mandatory military draft, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps for a two-year stint. "Vietnam at the time was a country, and not yet a war", he writes. It didn't remain that way for long.
-
-
Besides a production issue, excellent.
- By Lee Ward on 05-02-19
By: Jack McLean
-
Whispers in the Tall Grass
- By: Nick Brokhausen
- Narrated by: George Spelvin
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On his second combat tour, Nick Brokhausen served in Recon Team Habu, CCN. This unit was part of MACV-SOG (Military Assistance Command Vietnam Studies and Observations Group), or Studies and Observations Group as it was innocuously called. The small recon companies that were the center of its activities conducted some of the most dangerous missions of the war, infiltrating areas controlled by the North Vietnamese in Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. The companies never exceeded more than 30 Americans, yet they were the best source for the enemy's disposition.
-
-
OUTSTANDING
- By James on 12-21-19
By: Nick Brokhausen
-
Rice Paddy Recon
- A Marine Officer's Second Tour in Vietnam, 1968-1970
- By: Andrew R. Finlayson
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 16 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A young US Marine officer recounts his experiences of the Vietnam War over a 19-month period. He graphically describes what it was like to perform three distinct combat missions: long-range ground reconnaissance in the Annamite Mountains of I Corps, infantry operations in the rice paddies and mountains of Quang Nam Province, and special police operations for the CIA in Tay Ninh province. Using official Marine Corps unit histories, CIA documents, and his weekly letters home, the author relies almost exclusively on primary sources in providing an accurate and honest account.
-
-
The True Story
- By Brendan O'Connor on 02-02-20
-
Nam-Sense: Surviving Vietnam with the 101st Airborne
- By: Arthur Wiknik Jr.
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An honest tour of the Vietnam War from the soldier's eye view... Nam-Sense is the brilliantly written story of a combat squad leader in the 101st Airborne Division. Arthur Wiknik was a 19-year-old kid from New England when he was drafted into the US Army in 1968. After completing various NCO training programs, he was promoted to sergeant "without ever setting foot in a combat zone" and sent to Vietnam in early 1969. Shortly after his arrival on the far side of the world, Wiknik was assigned to Camp Evans, a mixed-unit base camp near the Northern village of Phong Dien.
-
-
A very good view of the war from a grunt's view.
- By Frank B. Smith on 07-16-19
-
To the Limit
- An Air Cav Huey Pilot in Vietnam
- By: Tom A. Johnson
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From June 1967 to June 1968, Tom Johnson accumulated an astonishing 1,600 flying hours piloting the UH-1 "Iroquois" - better known as the "Huey" - as part of the famous First Air Cavalry Division. His battalion was one of the most decorated units of the Vietnam War, and helped redefine modern warfare. Johnson's riveting memoir takes us into key battles and rescue missions, including those for Hue and Khe Sanh. In harrowing detail, he tells of being shot down in the battle of A Shau Valley, of surviving enemy attacks during the Tet Offensive, and of a death-defying nighttime river rescue.
-
-
Huey pilot's perspective of the 67-68 Vietnam war.
- By Jim on 10-15-18
By: Tom A. Johnson
-
Pucker Factor 10
- Memoir of a US Army Helicopter Pilot in Vietnam
- By: James Joyce
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The author was drawn into the United States Army through ROTC, and he went through training to fly helicopters in combat over Vietnam. His experiences are notable because he flew both Huey “Slicks” and Huey “Gunships”: the former on defense as he flew troops into battle, and the latter on offense as he took the battle to the enemy. Through this book, the author relives his experiences flying and fighting, with special attention given to his and other pilots’ day-to-day lives.
-
-
gunship crew chief point of view.
- By Anonymous User on 02-12-20
By: James Joyce
-
Run Through the Jungle
- Real Adventures in Vietnam with the 173rd Airborne Brigade
- By: Larry J. Musson
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Larry J. Musson comes an authentic account of combat with an airborne company in the waterlogged rice paddies and demanding jungles of South Vietnam. Share the experiences of fighting men under punishing conditions, extreme temperatures, and intense monsoon rains as they search for the enemy in the rugged mountains and teeming lowlands. Relive all the terror, humor, and sadness of one man's tour of duty with real-life action in spectacular, stunning detail.
-
-
It never grabbed me
- By Steve on 09-05-18
By: Larry J. Musson
-
Matterhorn
- A Novel of the Vietnam War
- By: Karl Marlantes
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 21 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why we think it’s a great listen: A performance so poignant, we gave Bronson Pinchot (yes, Balki from Perfect Strangers) our inaugural Narrator of the Year award.... In the monsoon season of 1968-69 at a fire support base called Matterhorn, located in the remote mountains of Vietnam, a young and ambitious Marine lieutenant wants to command a company to further his civilian political ambitions. But two people stand in his way.
-
-
Matterhorn
- By Zachary on 04-20-10
By: Karl Marlantes
-
Bury Him
- A Memoir of the Viet Nam War
- By: Capt Doug Chamberlain
- Narrated by: David Gilmore
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this frank, engaging memoir, Captain Chamberlain chronicles the missions, personal courage and sacrifice of the Marines he was privileged to command; painfully recalls the unspeakable order he and his Marines were forced to obey; and the cover-up which followed. Nearly four decades later, Captain Chamberlain makes right what was wrong; brings closure to the family of a fallen and abandoned warrior; and attempts to put to rest the guilt which plagued his military career and life.
-
-
Time well spent
- By Amazon Customer on 11-21-20
-
Modern Warriors
- Real Stories from Real Heroes
- By: Pete Hegseth
- Narrated by: Pete Hegseth, Michael David Axtell, Kaleo Griffith, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After three Army deployments - earning two Bronze Stars and a Combat Infantryman’s Badge - Pete Hegseth knows what it takes to be a modern warrior. In Modern Warriors, he presents candid, unfiltered conversations with fellow modern warriors and digs for real answers to key questions like: What inspired them to serve? What is their legacy? What does sacrifice really mean to them? How do they handle loss? And what can civilians learn from this latest generation of veterans?
-
-
Great Book
- By Dan Golden on 11-25-20
By: Pete Hegseth
Publisher's Summary
Before writing his award-winning Going After Cacciato, Tim O'Brien gave us this intensely personal account of his year as a foot soldier in Vietnam. The author takes us with him to experience combat from behind an infantryman's rifle, to walk the minefields of My Lai, to crawl into the ghostly tunnels, and to explore the ambiguities of manhood and morality in a war gone terribly wrong.
Beautifully written and searingly heartfelt, If I Die in a Combat Zone is a masterwork of its genre.
Critic Reviews
More from the same
What listeners say about If I Die in a Combat Zone
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Darwin8u
- 04-16-14
A solid Vietnam war memoir
A solid Vietnam memoir from one of the best known writers seasoned by the Vietnam war. Things I liked: cover, Plato, Eric as mirror, dialogue, etc. Things I didn't: didn't seem to add much to the combat veteran memoir, repetitious, risk-free, light. Sure it was updated with the particular nuances of the Vietnam experience, but it was rather safe (a bizarre thing to say about a memoir of a combat vet).
Don't get me wrong. I liked it. I appreciated it, and will read/listen to more of Tim O'Brien. I just didn't think this was on par with Robert Graves, Michael Herr, Guy Sayer, Artyom Borovik, Bob Kotlowitz, etc. Good but just not great. I say this realizing I'm reading this 40+ years after it was first published. I allow that I may think the book is safe only because the road of Vietnam war memoirs was built with a helluva lot of O'Brien's own bricks.
13 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Theresa Wright
- 12-06-19
felt as if I was at his side
the book drew me in and the narrator made it very easy to stay focused
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lois Thompson
- 07-04-18
Excellent
I truly thought that more than one person narrated this book and had to check to see that it’s all done by one man, and he does every voice perfectly. I’ve read other things by Tim O’Brien and am a fan although I’d never read this book. The listening experience must surpass the reading one here although the text is well-crafted too.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sam
- 04-25-16
reminder
was well written and read. no over fluffing of politics or of what one would think reader wanted to here. very honest and easly related to.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Paul Johnson
- 01-03-21
Maybe a version sort of like a radio serial?
I liked the whole story, and it helped to know that this book was written by someone who was actually there, and wasn’t just trying to win an award for a moving account of a kid in the army. I had a copy of the book and read along with the recording, and I liked that the chapters were short, so that I could stop and think about the stuff I had just heard. Still, I’d like to hear a version done more like a radio drama, with the same text, but with different people for each character instead of one guy trying to do his best impression of a staff sergeant or an oriental kid. Maybe I’m just spoiled by watching TV, but I would have loved to have heard background sound effects as it was being read, like mortars and chopper blades and gunfire, kind of like those radio serials from decades ago.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Charles
- 01-28-13
If I Die in a combat zone.
What disappointed you about If I Die in a Combat Zone?
This book just sucked. The story was terrible. I am a Viet Nam Vet. and it was very disappointing.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
- john C.
- 10-04-17
sucks
I respect what he did n had to do in the army but unless you want a war story told by Shakespeare and ancient quotes n metaphors this is not the book for you. I hated it.