Fire Mission! Fire Mission!

Book excerpt: Our country came before all else. Fire Mission! Fire Mission! is the fully documented experience of a green artillery forward observer with the First Cav in Vietnam. Along with his topographical map, M-16 and backpack, Lt. Larry Hunter carries an Instamatic camera to preserve his comrades and patrols. Letters from home illuminate his struggle to survive in Vietnam while his wife battles at home to make ends meet financially as a mother. Her faith and prayers to God strengthen and encourage him during days of losing close friends, and again, years later, when his faith is challenged by a new, unseen foe after his exposure to Agent Orange. From jumping out of his first helicopter ride directly into battle, through at least twenty-five combat assaults, and finally an overwhelming ambush on Company A, First Battalion, Twelfth Cavalry on March 31, 1966, for which he is awarded a Bronze Star for heroism, Lt. Larry Hunter documents and describes this new kind of war with no front lines.