Lurps: A Ranger's Diary of Tet, Khe Sanh, A Shau, and Quang Tri

Lurps is the revised edition of the memoir of a juvenile delinquent who drops out of ninth grade to chase his dream of military service. After volunteering for Vietnam, he joins the elite U.S. Army LRRP/Rangers--small, heavily armed long-range reconnaissance teams that patrol deep in enemy-held territory. It is 1968, and the Lurps find themselves in some of the war's hairiest campaigns and battles, including Tet, Khe Sanh, and A Shau. Readers witness all the horrors, humor, adrenaline, and unexpected beauty through the eyes of a green young warrior. Gone are the heroic clichés and bravado as compelling narrative and realistic dialogue sweep the reader along with a powerful sense that this is actually happening.

This poignant coming-of-age story explores the social background that shaped the protagonist's thinking, his uncertain quest for redemption through increased responsibility, the brotherhood of comrades in arms, women and sexual awakening, and the baffling randomness of who lives and who dies.

Customer Reviews:

The bottom up view of Viet Nam

By John Matlock "Gunny" - May 31, 2006

The stories out of Viet Nam by the lower level soldiers who were there doing the actual fighting are dramatically different than the stories from the commanders, and especially the stories from the anti-war protestors back in the states. It has now become accepted as fact that the war was immoral, not winnable, a mistake, and so on. Just about the same pitch that they are giving about the war in Iraq.

Dr. Ankony was there during Tet. He reports that 1,000 Americans were killed, and 32,000 NVA and Vietcong. Tet is viewed as a major American defeat. The Viet Namese government was fighting an eitirely different battle, using Tet to show that the American military and government leadership statements were misleading at best and downright lies at worst. Those 32,000 dead won them the war.

This story is from a grunt at the bottom end of the totem pole. This is what it was like for the low level working soldier. It's not a story of great sacrifice, heroism, but the day... read more

Lurps: A Ranger's Diary of Tet, Khe Sanh, A Shau, and Quang Tri

By kittyminnow "kitty" - January 26, 2006

University Press of America has a review available for this book from the U.S. Center of Military History, Washington D.C.:

"From a blue-collar neighborhood in southwest Detroit to the badlands of northern I Corps, Ankony's memoir is a vivid and unusually honest tale of one man's journey to war in South Vietnam and back. From his remarkable, eyewitness account of the North Vietnamese attack on Quang Tri City during the 1968 Tet Offensive to his description of the equipment and skills a soldier in Vietnam needed to survive, [Ankony] has given us a highly readable tale that is sure to entertain and inform anyone who has an interest in the war." - Dr. Erik B. Villard, U.S. Army Center of Military History, Washington, D.C.

Rangers Lead The Way, Again.

By Writetrak - August 20, 2012

While a ficticious novel like Matterhorn seems to have caught the lion's share of attention regarding the Vietnam War, it is a non-fiction book like Dr. Robert C. Ankony's LURPS- A Ranger's Diary of Tet, Khe Sanh, A Shau, and Quang Tri that shows the war in a more realistic light and, quite frankly, in my opinion, in a better and more original voice.
Ankony's book finely details the exploits of the 1st Cavalry Division's daring five man LRP/Ranger teams that went time and again behind the enemy lines to gather intelligence materials, capture valuable prisoners of war, or take the fight into the North Vietnamese Army's jungle sancutaries.
Better yet, he tells a story of the kind of men who served in this all volunteer unit, like Company Commander Michael Gooding, stalwart Team Leaders like Doug Parkinson or Walter 'Spanky' Seymour, and the many others who served with distinction in some of the most hard fought and dangerous areas of operations in the war.
Ankony... read more