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When you read My 365 Days with the Wolfhounds in Vietnam, you will be amazed by the stories as told by SSGT John “Big John” Quintrell. You will see over 50 original photos of the men who served in the Wolfhounds during the most intense period of the war. You will feel what it is like to be eaten alive by leeches, bitten by cobras, and fighting a constant war with malaria carrying mosquitoes.
Experience the unique bonds of brotherhood between men that came into the platoon as strangers but soon became brothers watching out for each others back. You will feel the anguish of a soldier whose friend dies in his arms. You will be with the platoon when they face 300 NVA regulars in an impossible fight for their lives. You will feel the startling fear that grips a man when he sees his buddy blown up by a land mine.
You will experience the utter discouragement of sitting in a rice paddy at night during a monsoon rain. Join the men who have survived the war for ten months and the paranoia they experience about being killed so close to going home. Ride with Big John on the freedom bird that is taking him home after a year in hell. Observe a broken soldier trying to adjust to living back in the world dealing with alcoholism and PTSD.
Tim Quintrell –
Reviews
“John Quintrell writes a devastatingly personal memoir. His recalling the chilling nature of guerrilla and helicopter warfare and its effect on the men who fight in it chronicles their cold fear. Ground with precision, John evokes the foot soldier’s daily life. Its raw language brings a shocking and gritty portrait of horror and pain with its immediate emotional impact of shame and guilt – recalled even 50 years after his one heartrending year in Vietnam. Not all soldiers were honorable. Judging by his clarity in the narrative he has yet to forget those years and its moral confusion. With intense sketches of fellow soldiers, hedgerows and villages, bloodied bodies and land scarred by bullets and napalm the author never lets up with the gore and agony and loss of yet another brother-in-arms, enemy, child or innocent civilian. As an Army Nurse in South Vietnam, I saw the results of war every day. Soldiers like John handed his men off to our hospitals or to the angels. Read this book to grasp that profound bravery, self-sacrifice and heroism in the Vietnam generation is undeniable. John lived to tell his story and he tells it well.”
Diane Carlson Evans, Captain, Army Nurse Corps, Vietnam 1968-69. Author of Healing Wounds, A Vietnam War Combat Nurses’ 10-year Fight to Win Women a Place of Honor in Washington, D.C. and Founder, Vietnam Women’s Memorial.
“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. John looks back into the military experiences of the young men he served with trying to survive during the Vietnam War.
Russell Bruns – Wolfhound Veteran
This is a story about the men who served with “Big John” in the second platoon Wolfhounds. Our story began in August 1968 and ended in August 1969. John’s memories of Basic and Advanced Infantry training are remarkable and anyone who went through these experiences will relive those challenging times. The story covers the trials and tribulations of the grunts that served in the platoon, as well as the lighter moments and gallows humor that prevailed as a way to help us cope with the insanity of war. I am extremely proud of John’s accurate accounts of the battles we fought together. John is my friend and cherished brother Wolfhound, who has written a book that, will allow all Vietnam Vets to take pride in their service.
Ray Bourgeois – 2nd Platoon 2nd 27th Inf. August 1968-August 1969
For those who enjoy reading a book that makes you feel like you are actually viewing the scene as written and want to turn the page to learn what transpired, then My 365 Days with the Wolfhounds in Vietnam is a must read. Through the eyes of a typical young American man, who is thrust into the reality of the Vietnam War and survives a complete tour of one year, the reader lives through all the human feelings that exist in this environment. You feel the emotions of fear, anguish, sorrow, joy, relief and want this young man to survive and go home in one piece. You get to see the bond that develops between young men, from every segment of the American society. You are present as a member of the writer’s unit; and, when his 365 days of a roller coaster ride of life and death are over, you are relieved that you too have made your DEROS. This story is a must read to open the door of the reality of an Army infantryman’s fight to survive 365 days in the Vietnam War.
As a combat wounded Army soldier, I, and every “ground pounder” who served in S. Vietnam, experienced the story played out in this most unique book! You will not put it down once you start reading.
Tommy Clack – Vietnam Veteran
If those surviving veterans of the Vietnam War can bear to revisit their half-century old memories at all, most cannot bring themselves to speak of their loss of innocence and the horrors they experienced. “Big John” Quintrell, who should have stayed in college instead of becoming the squad leader of an infantry unit, has been able to do both in this rare memoir. The often- raw specificity he provides belies a brilliant mind that could have been the top-notch doctor, lawyer or a senator as his family envisioned. It reminds us of how careful we need to be when we decide to wage war, committing our youth to causes they do not fully understand and depriving our society of their talents. As Quintrell takes us through the incredible 365-day journey he managed to survive, one grieves the loss of the precious young men and women, who did not make it back, but also of those, who did, because their lives were irreparably altered. If he could bring himself to go on with the telling of his story, the devastation of war and the effects of post-traumatic stress would be revealed in his and the lives of his wives and children. The hope is we will listen to these veterans, who are able and willing to speak to us of the miseries of war. It is they, who are the authoritative scholars on the subject. This work is far more than the equivalent of the college thesis Quintrell would have produced in academia. If we are to ensure veterans’ lives matter, please read it. Few accounts like this have or probably ever will be written.
Christine King MSc, PsyD, LMFT, LCPC
My 365 Days with the Wolfhounds in Vietnam is the accurate accounting of one Vietnam veteran’s life from being a carefree, 1968 California teenager, being transformed into a 1969 battle hardened Vietnam veteran questioning his own survival, mourning the loss of those left behind and asking the question: “What the hell just happened to me?”
The Vietnam War, much like all wars I suspect, left its indelible stamp on every soldier’s life who served their country during that time period. From being drafted, through their Army training designed to transform their civilian mentality into a disciplined soldier, to the battle-weary perspective of a veteran
who survived their own 365 days in hell to go home, only to find that “home” will never quite seem to be the same. John made it home, but part of him, just like every brother he served with in the Wolfhounds, will forever remain with his brothers in Vietnam. Reading John’s intriguing story reminded me of how vastly different each soldier’s perspective was and is of the events that happened to all of us each day in Vietnam. The soldiers of Charlie Company, Second Platoon fought side by side each day, but the survival of those days forever imprinted the indelible images in our minds which are each different because of what we saw happening directly in front of us, never having the ability to see the overall picture of what was happening all around us. John’s story of those 365 days is his story, as witnessed by him and I applaud him for being able to tell that story in a way that will be all too familiar to those who were there or survived their own 365 days in Vietnam.
Richard Glover Platoon Sergeant 2nd Platoon 1968-1969