Read The Shake 'n Bake Sergeant True Story of Infantry Sergeants in Vietnam eBook Jerry Horton

Product details File Size 12536 KB Print Length 472 pages Publication Date September 12, 2018 Sold by  Digital Services LLC Language English ASIN B07HBNTD54

The Shake 'n Bake Sergeant True Story of Infantry Sergeants in Vietnam eBook Jerry Horton Reviews

• I also was a shake n bake infantry squad leader with E Co. 1/7th Cav. Div. (Airmobile) in 1972. This book was a great way to show what we went through when we got to Vietnam. The Army needed instant leadership for this war. I knew exactly what the author went through in NCOC school at FT. Benning Ga. It was a great read for any grunt from the Vietnam war.
• I enjoyed this account of A company 1st battalion 8th Infantry of the 4th Infantry Division. It was good to hear it from a shake and bake perspective. I have read a couple dozen biographies from the Vietnam War, mainly Army but some Marine also. This is a good one. Horton tells us about the every day grunt, the man in the foxhole or bunker, the man on patrol and that is what I am looking for. I have only two complaints the first is that story is disjointed and the second is the lack of maps or drawing embedded in the stories. I like to visualize how everything is playing out and it is really hard without aid. As for being disjointed I prefer to read what happened to each group of men in a continuous story rather than parts of the story as it happens throughout the day and night. By the time you get around to finishing your story about the tracers I have trouble remembering where they are and what they have been through.
• I served in Vietnam in the same company, A-1-8, as SGT Horton albeit several months later. However, I was fortunate not to have experienced combat as severe as that which Horton describes here. His combat accounts are vivid and well worth the read.
  
  Nevertheless, there are about 200 pages to get through before that combat. Then roughly 150 pages are dedicated to the single battle which is the crux of the book. This is followed by another 100 pages of addendum on the March 1969 campaign. The middle section is engrossing.
  
  If you read this book to discover what is was like to be an infantryman in Vietnam, you will be rewarded. If, however, you expect a history of the Army's shake 'n' bake sergeants you will be disappointed; this is strictly one man's story. As noted by others, the book is in dire need of a competent editor.
  
  This book is much like the war it describes, lackluster until the fighting begins. None of that should diminish the sheen of SGT Horton's two Silver Stars nor the obvious depth of research that he put into producing this book. I'm sure that it was a labor of love. And every account of the history of the Vietnam experience is important.
• Very informative accounts of actions while serving in the Republic of Vietnam. Horton tells of his life before, during, and after his actions in combat while serving as Sergeant 1968 to 1969. This is a very detailed account of all he experienced and all he witnessed while in county. One of the better reads of service in Vietnam!
• Since the end of the Vietnam War, a plethora of books has been written by veterans trying to make sense out of the quagmire that American found itself in during the 1960s and early 1960s. Each one of these personal accounts of the war offers unique insights and at times for the veterans writing them, they are cathartic in many ways for these veterans old ghosts are finally laid the rest and emotional scars healed.
  
  What makes Jerry Horton's memoir of the war, The Shake 'n Bake Sergeant, memorable and poignant is that he describes how he became a part of the Army's program to fast-track personnel to become squad leaders to replace personnel wounded or killed. Horton has to overcome all sorts of obstacles, not the least of which is earning the respect of his men who must be led by a sergeant who has no combat experience.
  
  This is a powerful book of war and the camaraderie between "grunts" who watch out for each other. Although the expression, "I couldn't put this book down" might be overused by reviewers, it is most definitely apropos here. There's this slow, suspenseful build to Horton's memoirs as you follow him and his men into the bush where danger is all around. And when the fighting starts, you are right there in the middle of it, feeling the danger and hoping that Horton and his men survive.
  
  Thank you, Mr. Horton, for telling your story and the story of your men.
  
  Jeffrey Miller,
  The Panama Affair
• After reading literally hundreds of first-person accounts of ground combat in Vietnam, Mr Horton’s book is in my personal top five and I would warmly recommend it to anyone wishing to understand both the physical and emotional journey the combat soldier goes through in a war as well as the spiritual journey he endures in the “peace” after.
  This book and this man’s life brings my favorite poem to mind
  You cannot pick your battlefields;
  God does that for you
  But you can plant a standard
  Where a standard never flew.
  Well done, soldier, well done!