First In, Last Out: An American Paratrooper in Vietnam with the 101st and Vietnamese Airborne

John D Howard

มิ.ย. 2023 · Rowman & Littlefield

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A Vietnam veteran recounts his experience through two tours of duty—early in the conflict and then in its final stages.

Fresh out of West Point, John Howard arrived for his first tour in Vietnam in 1965, the first full year of escalation when U.S. troop levels increased dramatically, from 23,000 to 184,000. When Howard returned for a second tour in 1972, troop strength stood at 24,000 and would dwindle to a mere fifty the following year. He thus participated in the very early and very late stages of American military involvement in the Vietnam War. 

Howard’s two tours—the first as a platoon commander and member of an elite counterguerrilla force, and the second as a senior advisor to the South Vietnamese—provide a fascinating lens through which to view not only one soldier’s experience in Vietnam, but also the country’s.

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John D. Howard graduated from West Point in 1964, beginning a military career that included two tours in Vietnam and service as platoon commander, company commander, battalion commander, brigade commander, division operations officer, division chief of staff, deputy commanding general of the 10th Mountain Division, executive assistant to the U.S. Army vice chief of staff, and U.S. Defense Representative in Pakistan. He is a graduate of the Infantry School, Airborne School, Ranger School, the Naval Postgraduate School, and the Army War College. He retired in 1992 as a brigadier general and spent the next twenty years as a business executive. His combat awards include the Silver Star, Purple Heart, five Bronze Stars, and the Combat Infantryman’s Badge. Howard lives in Arlington, Virginia.