• For Your Consideration:
• A SIGNED & INSCRIBED Trade Paperback Edition—with a particularly poignant inscription (see “SIGNING NOTE”) of:
• “THE BEAST WAS OUT THERE:
THE 28TH INFANTRY BLACK LIONS and THE BATTLE OF ONG THANH, VIETNAM, October 1967”
(Cantigny First Division Foundation, 2002) (Trade Paperback, First Edition, Fourth Printing)
• BY BRIG. GEN. JAMES E. SHELTON, USA (RET.) (1935-2018)
• FOREWORD BY DAVID MARANISS
• SIGNING NOTE:
The author BRIG. GEN. JAMES E. SHELTON’s (dated) inscription & signature appear in black ink on the title page as follows: “27 Jan 2010. To Jack Bruce: This is a story about brave men who sacrificed themselves for their comrades and country. May we always have Americans such as these. Warm regards, BLACK LIONS!
JIM SHELTON”
• ABOUT THIS TITLE:
• “What happened at the Battle of Ông Thanh and why did it take such an ill-fated turn? In this brutal, yet compelling narrative, JIM SHELTON, former operations officer of the 2-28 Infantry, pulls no punches. Mistakes are chronicled as are the many courageous deeds of the young officers and men of the BLACK LIONS on that fateful day.”
—THE PUBLISHER
• “So sad, so incisive, so objectively/fearlessly written.… All told, a great read.”
—LT. GEN. HAROLD G. MOORE, U.S. ARMY (RET.), CO-AUTHOR, “WE WERE SOLDIERS…AND YOUNG”
• “Simply put, this book is excellent!... The feel of the battlefield is almost eerily realistic. If any future student of the Vietnam War wants to know what we fought for so long at such cost with such meager results, he must start with [this] book.”
—LT. GEN. DAVE R. PALMER, U.S. ARMY (RET.), “SUMMONS OF THE TRUMPET: U.S.VIETNAM IN PERSPECTIVE”
• “I started reading it over the holidays and could not put it down.”
—LT. GEN. JAMES H. JOHNSON, JR., U.S. ARMY (RET.)
• “I was immediately hooked…and read your book from beginning to end. You did a great job…. Your description of infantry operations in jungle terrain was most accurate, and I could almost smell the foliage.”
—BRIG. GEN. GRAIL L. BROOKSHIRE, U.S. ARMY (RET.)
• “A great book.”
—MAJ. GEN. CALVERT P. BENEDICT, U.S. ARMY (RET.)
• “JIM SHELTON is a superb soldier and a very fine human being and he is to be thanked and congratulated for this contribution to history.”
—LT. GEN. DEWITT SMITH, U.S. ARMY (RET.)
• “THE BEAST WAS OUT THERE is an unvarnished, first-hand account of the run-up to the disastrous battle of Ong Thanh on October 17, 1967 that nearly annihilated the 2/28 Infantry. Although written years later by the former battalion operations officer, then MAJOR JIM SHELTON (later brigadier general), the book has a ‘feel’ of immediacy. It is one of those ‘it feels like yesterday’ reads, and the reader gets an up close and personal account of life (and death) within a U.S. Army infantry battalion in 1967.”
—PATRICK D. MAHANEY, AMAZON REVIEW
• “GEN. SHELTON does a great job of telling the story in short chapters that keeps one’s attention focused…. Could not put the book down until I finished it. The author correctly states that it is impossible to plan for every action that might occur in a battle but for the battle of Ong Thanh, COL. TERRY ALLEN did not plan on meeting a superior force in the jungle. That omission decimated his command and cost him his life and the lives of 57 of his troopers. In a later interview, the commander of the Vietnamese forces said he had 1,400 soldiers open fire on the 200+ Americans walking into the ambush. The Americans had no chance. It’s a miracle that any of the BLACK LIONS survived that day. Great historical information told in a very personal manner. GEN. SHELTON lost a lot of friends that fateful day. Highly recommended for all those building a historical library on the Vietnam War. Also an informative, mentoring text on leadership.”
—RILEY EDWARDS, AMAZON REVIEW
• “The Vietnam War that SHELTON brings to life in this book strikes me as the real deal, free of excessive romance or cynicism…. He and his compatriots in THE BIG RED ONE were real-life characters with human flaws…. He sees errors of tactics and strategy made by the American military and is not hesitant to point them out. Yet what shines through every page of this book is respect. Not the easy rhetoric of duty and honor and patriotism, not the political arguments about whether the war was right or wrong, but something deeper and more meaningful. THE BEAST WAS OUT THERE in the end is not just about the beast, not just about the awfulness of one October battle, but about the hearts of men like JIM SHELTON who worked so hard, day after difficult day, and the love that arose out of fear and courage and blood and death and sweat.”
—DAVID MARANISS, FROM HIS INTRODUCTION
•
• For other details about this book, please see below.
•
SERIES: “CANTIGNY MILITARY HISTORY SERIES”
TITLE: “THE BEAST WAS OUT THERE”
SUBTITLE: “THE 28TH INFANTRY BLACK LIONS AND THE BATTLE OF ONG THANH, VIETNAM, OCTOBER 1967”
AUTHOR: BRIG. GEN. JAMES E. SHELTON, USA (RET.)
FOREWORD: DAVID MARANISS
TYPE: TRADE PAPERBACK
PUBLISHER, LOCALE, & YEAR: Cantigny First Division Foundation (Wheaton, Illinois), 2002
EDITION: First Edition, Fourth Printing*
*RE: On the Copyright Page, the statement “First Edition, Fourth Printing.”
PAGES: 356
ISBN: 1-890093-12-2
NOTE: THIS BOOK is not an ex-library copy nor a Book-of-the-Month-Club edition.
CONDITION OF BOOK: VERY GOOD.
Covers/wraps are clean & bright. Front is slightly bowed/curved upward uncut. Corners are minutely rubbed. Light but persistent edgewear along edges. Spine is tight & uncreased with bumped tips. Text-block edges are clean but lightly scuffed. The author’s signature & inscription appears in black ink on the title page. The author’s business card is stapled to the same page & a shadow of the staple can be seen on the previous four pages. About half the pages have two creases (in the same area) near their top corners—this seems to be the result of improper shelfing (rather than somebody bending the corner of each page individually) & does not affect readability. Besides what we just mentioned, the pages are all pointedly clean & bright with no writing, no underlining, no highlighting, no tears/rips, no stains, no foxing, no foul odor, etc. In fact, the uncreased spine & the very clean & bright shape of the pages suggests that this copy has not been read.
• SHIPPING NEWS: This book will be wrapped with care before being shipped in a cushioned & sturdy box. THANK YOU!
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