More Than A Battle Tale

Keith, Philip.  Fire Base Illingworth: An Epic True Story of Remarkable Courage Against 
        Staggering  Odds.  New York: St. Martins Press, 2013.  ISBN: 978-1-250-02495-4

In Fire Base Illingworth, Philip Keith provides a window into the chaos that was the Vietnam War in 1970.  Keith sets the scene with chapters discussing the strategy of using fire bases as magnets for the North Vietnamese Army and the remnants of the Viet Cong.  These chapters provide the information needed in concise, easily-understood terms.

Keith next provides a brief life story for Private Illingworth, the namesake of the fire base along with a summary account of what happened at Fire Base Jay a few days before the attack on Fire Base Illingworth.  But the heart of the book is the tale of the defense of Fire Base Illingworth.  In describing the defense Keith provides an almost minute by minute account of the heroic actions of the many heroes that barely managed to hang on when confronted by a strong, reasonably planned and decently executed attack by the NVA.  When reading the account you can almost picture the action as if viewing a movie, except that neither video  nor prose can place the reader in the midst of the action as does the voices of those involved.

The one gripe I have with the book is the lack of a map of the fire base which would allow the reader to easily place the players and follow the action.  But with that one caveat, I would highly  recommend this title for anyone interested in the Vietnamese Conflict.