Page 138 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Winter 2015

Vietnam 1968–1969

A Battalion Surgeon’s Journal

Holley, Byron E. Vietnam 1968–1969. A Battalion Surgeon’s Journal.
New York: Ivy Books, 1993. 211 pages. ISBN-10: 0804109346/ISBN-13: 978-0804109345.

Review by COL (Ret) Warner “Rocky” D. Farr, MD, MPH

oung doctor-intern-draftee in Memphis, Tennessee, the Army Medical Department Center and School at
YDr. Byron Holley, spent a year in Vietnam as the bat- Fort Sam Houston, Texas, to learn to be an army officer
talion medical officer of the 4th Battalion of the 39th and a battalion surgeon. His training included a surgi-
Regiment, in the 9th Infantry Division. This battalion cal animal laboratory. His deployment, as an individual
was not much different from other replacement, to Vietnam and assimilation to the division
such infantry battalions in South is covered.
Vietnam until a new battalion com-
mander arrived. He was Lieutenant He talks extensively about battalion operations, his med-
Colonel David Hackworth, one of ics, and his Medical Service Corps officers who helped
the most decorated soldiers in the him in his newly assumed role of leading the medical
American Army. Hackworth’s auto- platoon in an infantry battalion. He describes various
biography is available and also well incidents, the wounded, and his trips to the nearest field
worth reading.* Hackworth was de- hospital to take his acutely wounded. He also describes
termined to harden the battalion into later visits to his patients there and becoming part of
a Ranger unit, the “ HARDCORE the field hospital response when wounded Soldiers sud-
Battalion.” He had his battalion sur- denly arrive. Late in his tour, he did some headquarters
geon served in the swamps of the Mekong Delta, and the dispensary duty in and around Saigon, and also tried his
author gives you a feel for chaos of the “patch-‘em-up- hand at ophthalmology.
and-dust-‘em-off” medicine that was his job in the 4/39th
of the 9th Infantry. Hackworth, the consummate com- Surviving all this, he returned to America, became a resi-
mander, slowly learned the “doc’s” role in accomplishing dent at Tulane University, and ,later, an ophthalmologist
his battalion’s mission. in Florida, and moved on with his life just like most
Veterans do. His memories are well worth a read.
Holley sent letters to his wife from Vietnam and used
them to later create this book. The book begins when *Hackworth DH, Sherman J. About face: the odyssey of an
Holley received his doctor draft notice and went through American warrior. New York, NY: Touchstone, 1990.

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