Flashing Saber

"The division's expendables." That's what one division commander called the Ninth Cavalry Blue platoons during the Vietnam War. The Blues, as they were called, were perpetually understrength and considered to be acceptable losses in hopeless situations-but their amazingly successful record proved otherwise.

A firsthand account of mortal combat with the Ninth Cavalry, "Flashing Saber" is the remarkable story of the brave men who served in the First Air Cavalry Division's reconnaissance squadron. Included is an account of an air-ground raid that overran a regimental command post and killed more high-ranking enemy officers than any similar engagement of the war.

The story begins when a teenager, an Eagle Scout and West Point Prep School student, goes to Vietnam in 1965. Motivated by patriotism and the desire to see combat firsthand, Brennan volunteers for front line duty and spends years as an artillery forward observer and infantryman. Promoted to sergeant and then to lieutenant, Brennan participates in hundreds of assault landings.

An expansion and careful reworking of his previous work, "Brennan's War," published in 1985, and in the vein of classic memoirs by Johnnie Clark and Frederick Downs, "Flashing Saber"is a harrowing firsthand account of life and death in war, one filled with breathtaking details about a renowned unit.