Click for full-size.
Where They Lay: The Search for Those Who Fell ini Battle and Were Left Behind..
by Earl Swift
- Used
- Paperback
- Condition
- Good Condition
- ISBN 10
- 0553814443
- ISBN 13
- 9780553814446
- Seller
-
Bowral, New South Wales, Australia
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Bantam Books, Great Britain, 2004. Softcover. Good Condition. Part history, part travelogue, part adventure - the extraordinary story of the US Army's Central Identification Unit . . . The US government has an unspoken pledge with every man and woman it sends into battle: you may be wounded doing your duty, you may even be killed, but you won't be left behind . . . On 20 March 1971, during the largest helicopter battle in history, an American chopper on a suicide rescue mission exploded in the skies over Laos. Its scorched remains fell onto terrain about which allied forces knew little except that it was hostile - jungle so dense with North Vietnamese that going after the dead crewmen was out of the question. And so two highly decorated pilots, and a pair of gunners who had each earned the Silver Star for heroism earlier that day, were left where they lay. They are among the 2,583 US servicemen whose bodies remained unrecovered at war's end. Now, 30 years later, a team of soldiers and scientists is venturing back into that battlefield. Their job to dig among the thousands of unexploded bombs that litter the landscape, in ground slick from monsoon rains, in jungle infested with leeches, foot-long centipedes and poisonous snakes, to find those four crew and to bring them home. Its mission is one of dozens conducted every year, in Asia, Europe and the scattered islands of the Pacific - to locate and bury America's war dead, to put a name - the right name - on each headstone. 394 pages. Pages browned. Illustrated. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilogram. Category: Military; Military & Warfare; ISBN: 0553814443. ISBN/EAN: 9780553814446. Inventory No: 265356.. 9780553814446
Synopsis
Where They Lay melds an account of an elite military team's high-tech, high-risk search for a Vietnam War pilot's remains with a remarkably immediate and poignant retelling of his final intense hours. In far-flung rain forests and its futuristic lab near Pearl Harbor, the Central Identification Laboratory (CILHI) strives to recover and identify the bodies of fighting men who never came home from America’s wars. Its mission combines old-fashioned bushwhacking and detective work with the latest in forensic technology. Earl Swift accompanies a CILHI team into the Laotian jungle on a search for the remains of Major Jack Barker and his three-man crew, whose chopper went down in a fireball more than thirty years ago. He interweaves the story of the recovery team's work with a tense account of Barker's fatal attempt to rescue trapped soldiers during the largest helicopter assault in history. Swift is the first reporter ever allowed to follow a recovery mission, as these unique archaeological digs are called, in its entirety, and he got his hands dirty, combing the jungle floor for clues amid vipers, monsoons, and unexploded bombs. Where They Lay resounds with admiration for those who fell and those who seek them. But Swift also raises hard questions about these recovery missions. Is it worth $100 million a year to try to bring home the lost from old wars? Is it worth the lives of today's soldiers? (Seven Americans died in the line of duty just months before Swift went in country.) And is the effort compromised by the corruption among native officials overseeing missions in their countries? As new conflicts draw our attention, Where They Lay throws brilliant light on war's cost to soldiers and to those they leave at home.
Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- leura books
(AU)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 265356
- Title
- Where They Lay: The Search for Those Who Fell ini Battle and Were Left Behind..
- Author
- Earl Swift
- Format/Binding
- Softcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Good Condition
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10
- 0553814443
- ISBN 13
- 9780553814446
- Publisher
- Bantam Books
- Place of Publication
- Great Britain
- Date Published
- 2004
- Keywords
- BZDB43 Military; Military & Warfare; Unbranded ISBN: 0553814443 EAN: 9780553814446 Earl Swift Where They Lay: The Search for Those Who Fell ini Battle and Were Left Behind...
- Bookseller catalogs
- Military;
Terms of Sale
leura books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged. Once your order has been received, it will be picked, packed and mailed within 48 hours.
About the Seller
leura books
Biblio member since 2003
Bowral, New South Wales
About leura books
Quality Used Online Bookstore
This Book’s Categories
Collecting History of the Circus in America
Step right up! Take a look at the center ring, where you will see displayed the most amazing, most colorful series of history books that the world has ever seen! Right this way, folks…
What is a professional bookseller?
Just about anyone can sell a book, but a professional bookseller knows the ins and outs of the rare book trade. Learn more!
