Ron Campian of Canton, Ohio, joined the Marine Corps Reserve after graduating from high school, volunteered for active duty in 1967, and was sent overseas to serve on the ground in the Vietnam War.

In the history of warfare I find it interesting how seemingly insignificant places take on a momentous importance. Valley Forge, the Alamo, Gettysburg, and Bastogne became symbolic as bastions of ...

Con Thien, South Vietnam, Aug. 15, 1968: Pvt. 1st Class Richard M. Topeka of B Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division — a machine gunner at Con Thien Marine base — walks ...

Three in the morning, 1969 — yesterday, forever away. Con Thien was like a graveyard, deadly quiet with the troubled spirits of dead U.S. Marines lurking about. Bunkers, surrounded by dull ...

The latest report from Vietnam, based largely on files from correspondent David Greenway, who also took the image that appeared on this issue’s cover, found U.S. Marines under fire at Con Thien. The ...

As in his previous Vietnam War memoir, Con Thien: The Hill of Angels, Coan gives a reflective account concentrated on his time as a young U.S. Marine lieutenant commanding a five-tank platoon at an ...

The war, like a seesaw, took two interlocking directions at once last week. American planes took advantage of the last clear days before the monsoon to wreak unusually heavy damage on North Viet Nam.

Time in the Barrel: A Marine’s Account of the Battle for Con Thien, James P. Coan. The University of Alabama Press. $34.95 “You’re no good to us dead.” Although 25-year-old 2nd Lt. James P. Coan was ...

Then-Gunny John Canley originally was awarded the Navy Cross while serving as a company commander at the outset of the infamous Tet Offensive in 1968. (Courtesy of the office of Julia Brownley) ...

MEMORY: “There's lots of songs about war. There's nothing glorious about war. “I served a 13-month combat tour in Vietnam during 1967 and 1968 with the First Battalion 9th Marines, known as the ...