Heroes from the Fire: Heroic Veterans of the Vietnam War

March 24th, 2023 1:00 am | by Blog Contributor Posted in Guest Blog

Photo by Алесь Усцінаў

Stormrider, a historical novel based on true events, is partly fictional, but the bravery displayed during the Vietnam War is undoubtedly real, inspiring future soldiers.

Every veteran of the Vietnam War is a hero, bar none. 

Combat is a bloody and bleak affair; bullets don’t have eyes, and bombs don’t have feelings. In war, almost every moment is high-strung, full of tension, as if everyone’s swimming in gasoline and waiting for everything to go boom. 

The Vietnam War was this throughout the campaign, except it’s turned up to eleven. 

Despite harrowing reports and the possibility of never coming back home, countless brave individuals still lined up to participate, give back to their country, and uphold the principles of life, freedom, and liberty across the globe.

Stormrider, a historical novel based on true events, attempts to place much-needed perspective in people’s views on the war by bringing the eyes to ground-level, away from the endless politicking of politicians, the crowded protests of the growing Antiwar movement, and even the strategic maneuverings of the generals and the like. In Stormrider and in the Vietnam War, the protagonists and chief characters are and always have been the soldiers, the men at the frontline, the heroic veterans. 

Stormrider by Gordon Bocher is, at its core, not only a vivid recollection of the horrors and heroism displayed during the Vietnam War, the high stakes at play, and the geopolitical impacts of the war: it is a story about the soldier, the heroic veterans who braved through fire and bullets and mosquitos and rain and everything the world could throw at them to do one thing and one thing only: to serve their country.

Here are some of these brave, heroic veterans and their stories:

SFC William Maud Bryant. Born in Cochran, Georgia, Sergeant Bryant did not have the most stable of childhoods. Before seeing combat in the Vietnam War, Sergeant Bryant attended a medley of military schools, including the Counterinsurgency Raider Course in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and the Intelligence Analyst Special Forces Course in Fort Holabird, Maryland.

While serving as the Commanding Officer of a defense group in Long Khanh Province, Vietnam, his battalion was ambushed, receiving heavy fire from enemy combatants who were closing in on them and almost leaving them no place to rest and a chance to take a breath. Throughout this three-hour assault, the sergeant was busy commandeering his troops, establishing defensive perimeters despite the heavy fire and distributing munitions, and assisting the wounded. Without his leadership, it is doubtful the battalion could have sustained a collected front.

While leading a counterattack, Sergeant Bryant suffered a severe wound. Things would have ended there if he didn’t muster what courage was left in him and fearlessly charged at the enemy with his dying breath, single-handedly eliminating the enemy’s position and inspiring his men to renew their attacks with vigor and momentum.

Posthumously and rightly so, he would be awarded the Medal of Honor.

William Pitsenbarger was an airman. Arriving in Vietnam, he was assigned to the 38th Air Rescue and Recovery Squadron. His primary responsibilities, alongside his team, were to recover downed pilots, wounded airmen and soldiers, and many other rescue operations. There is no exact number for how many people he saved, but it is easily in the hundreds–and without his bravery, perhaps they would have never seen another day. All in all, Pitsenbarger was involved in more than 300 missions to rescue allies scattered in the thick jungles of Vietnam.

In one particular mission to rescue a wounded South Vietnamese soldier, Pitsenbarger put his life on the line by attempting to pick up the soldier by himself. You see, what happened was the South Vietnamese had, while fighting against enemies, stumbled into an old minefield and lost his foot after getting it blown apart by an active mine. He was surrounded by explosives, and the rescue team wracked their heads, trying to save him.

It was when Pitsenbarger offered himself that they could save the wounded soldier.

This was not his only dance with death.

Across the surface of the vast Vietnam Veterans War Memorial in Washington DC, inscribed are more than 58,000 names of men and women who were either killed or missing in action during one of the bloodiest conflicts of modern history. The immensity of it all, even just staring at the memorial, is awe-inspiring and humbling.

There can be no greater cause than that to die for something. And soldiers willingly choose to show the world that they have what it takes to do so. But, under this unyielding loyalty and conviction, these soldiers are people–they love, they dream, they live, and then, they die.

To remember the sacrifice of these heroic veterans is to remember the life they sacrificed. 

Stormrider by Gordon Bocher is an intense and unstinting account of urgency and struggle during the Vietnam War and arising from all that: heroism, courage, bravery, and conviction.