The Fields of Bamboo by S.L.A. Marshall.  Battery Press reprint edition:1984. 242 pages. 25 photos/drawings. 14 maps. Trim Size: 5 1/2" by 8 1/2" hardcover with dustjacket ISBN: 081-8 Summary:In June and October of 1966 the First Cavalry Division (air mobile) fought two campaigns in the Vietnam war-Operation Nathan Hale and Operation Thayer-Irving. Each is remarkable as an example of the day-by-day combat United States forces have experienced in Vietnam. Together they characterize the war in microcosm. A guerrilla attack from three hills northeast of the Special Forces camp at Dong Tre began Operation Nathan Hale, a series of battles fought for nameless ridges and nearly deserted villages. The Viet Cong excelled at fighting in the extreme heat and through the rank elephant grass. The air cavalrymen and paratroopers PFCs, noncoms, and officers became veteran fighters overnight in a war in which the enemy is virtually invisible, even when dead, graves having been carefully dug beforehand. Hoa Hoi, the focus of Operation Thayer-Irving, is a dead-end village some twelve hundred meters inland from the South China Sea and just a short walk east of Highway No. 1. Here too the fighting was from ambush, or from caves dug under water. Yet, despite almost impossible conditions, at the finish of the campaign the division, one way or another, had eliminated more than a thousand of the enemy. 1984 reprint of 1971 edition.