During military conflict, only about 20% of the Army is engaged in combat operations. Those warfighters are in a class of their own. From their ranks come the legends of men whose battlefield exploits encourage subsequent generations who gravitate to the chaos of close combat.
This book is about one such legend, Richard Henry Boland. There are many views and opinions about "Rawhide," and you, the readers, will frequently find yourselves at odds about this soldier. He was rough, raw, undisciplined in the ways of polite society, and profane. Nonetheless, if you were willing to train with him and fight with him on the battlefield, there were very few others you wanted to serve with.
Colonel Boland had two dislikes among the many categories of soldiers: West Pointers and Generals. As both, I was fortunate to have had only positive encounters with him. I served in his battalion on Okinawa, 1st Battalion (Airborne); 503rd Infantry, and returned to the unit after its deployment to Vietnam in May, 1965. Rawhide was no longer in command, and the reasons were in dispute. Nonetheless, during my command of Alpha Company, 1/503 in 1966, I missed his leadership and battlefield savvy enormously.
Years later, at a 1/503 reunion where we both attended, the aging Colonel Boland did not miss a beat; he was the old warfighter, fully prepared to tangle with the world. We had a dinner together that remains a rare jewel in my experience.
You are about to have a "rare jewel" of a reading experience about a soldier's soldier whose leadership and cantankerous spirit illuminate the pages ahead.
Airborne! All the Way!