Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:58 — 3.4MB) | Embed
Subscribe: RSS
Retired US Army Special Forces soldier
Lt. Colonel George R. Lanigan
began his nearly 30 year service with special forces training stateside and in the jungles of Panama before being sent to participate in the seemingly thankless task of training green Cambodian recruits in the art of ambushing seasoned communist insurgents in Vietnam just as America was passing off the counter-guerilla baton to Indochinese government allies. This difficult, dangerous and often apparently futile mission was punctuated by the sadness at the impending pull-out from Southeast Asia, the folly of trying to do a big job with poor resources and the duty to fulfill orders. Upon return home the young green beret was met with hostility and incomprehension. Now retired, Lanigan decided to publish his story entitled Alone in the Valley, A Soldiers Journey in the Vietnam War.
I have just finished reading your Book Alone in the Valley and I found it very interesting,as I was in the Kiwi/Aussie Army and travelled a bit from Vung tau to Nui dat and I didn’t know to much about the Long Hais.A very good read from someone who was not to far away.
George, I just finished your book. Great read. I was an air traffic controller in Nam from Mar 68-Sep 71 with 2yrs in Can Tho. You mentioned Dave Dolby. I was 2 yrs behind him in high school, we rode the same bus to school. I ran into him in Binh Xi Moi, outside of Can Tho. He was going across the fence near Chi Lang. A couple yrs after Nam, I stopped at his home.to see him. This was after he was awarded the MOH. We talked for an hour or so. I think he was having some PTSD problems. Was good to see and talk together. He died a while later. He was a good man.