Book Review: Lima-3 and the Mustang Grunt

Thirteen months in Vietnam is a long time for anyone to be deployed. For the 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines in 1966, it probably seemed like an eternity. Maj. (ret.) Frank McCarthy's book "Lima-3 and the Mustang Grunt" vividly describes what it was like to fight against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army along the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Vietnam.

His book tells the story of his company, Lima Company, from the formation of the 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines at Camp Pendleton all the way through their rotation home, all reflectively written from the view of then-Lt. Frank McCarthy. It even includes dozens of photographs from the unit.

Lima Company (and the rest of the Marines making the sea voyage to Vietnam) were caught up in Typhoon Ida on their journey to the war. Ida killed an estimated 275 people and sank 107 seagoing ships, but luckily not the transport carrying McCarthy's Marines. They arrived in Vietnam in December 1966 after 80 hours in a typhoon, well-trained but with zero combat experience. 

That soon changed. Within days, McCarthy and his Marines were headed to the Co Bi-Thanh Tan corridor, where the Viet Cong had just struck three South Vietnamese strongpoints. With the North Vietnamese Army attempting to infiltrate the area, the 3rd Battalion was headed into action. 

They didn't wait for very long before the Viet Cong struck. On Dec. 22 and 23, 1966, the 802d VC Battalion launched large attacks against the Marines. The ongoing operation was expanded into Operation Chinook, a 90-day effort to eliminate enemy forces south of the DMZ. There, Lima Company and the rest of the Marines fought against a determined enemy in monsoon weather, covered in leeches, shivering in foxholes, and avoiding mines and booby traps. 

McCarthy recalls the unit's exploits through some of the most enduring names in the history of the Vietnam War, from Phu Bai, Con Tien, and then to Khe Sanh and back from both his own memory and official records. The result is a stunning firsthand view of what it was like to lead Marines in the earliest days of the Vietnam War. 

"Every time something came up, they said 'send in the 26th Marines," remembered Lee Solomon, a veteran from Lima Company. "We lived in the jungle. We didn't have an area of operations. We were nomads in-country, and everywhere we went, we were in a fight. I spent 19 months in combat there, and that's all I did the whole time."

In his book, McCarthy shares some of the harrowing war stories that can only come from someone who spent significant time in the field. McCarthy and his men, many of them just 18 years old, endured some of the hardest fighting of the war in some of the worst conditions imaginable.

A lot of books will give history buffs and Vietnam War enthusiasts a 30,000-foot view of the battles and campaigns of U.S. forces in South Vietnam. Many more will also tell stunning stories about individuals' experiences in the war.