cover image The Sons of Bardstown: 25 Years of Vietnam in an American Town

The Sons of Bardstown: 25 Years of Vietnam in an American Town

Jim Wilson. Crown Publishers, $22 (198pp) ISBN 978-0-517-57737-0

This finely crafted Vietnam vignette begins in April 1968, when the National Guard unit of Bardstown, Ky., was called into federal service. The 117 men of Battery C, 138th Artillery, were largely skilled workers and established farmers. But suddenly they were en route to a war zone. This narrative by Wilson ( Retreat, Hell! We're Just Fighting in Another Direction ) of the hasty marriages and support networks established by the young wives evokes the scene on the homefront during W WW II. His account of the attack on the battery on the night of June 19, 1968, is archetypically Vietnam. Taken by surprise, five guardsmen were killed and 45 wounded. Wilson's descriptions of the battle and its effects on Bardstown invite comparison to Hal Moore and Joe Galloway's We Were Soldiers Once--and Young. This tale epitomizes the tragedy of Vietnam and the risks of recruiting whole military units from a single region. Photos not seen by PW. (June)