Listen free for 30 days
-
The Odyssey of Echo Company
- The 1968 Tet Offensive and the Epic Battle to Survive the Vietnam War
- Narrated by: CJ Wilson
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
The Odyssey of Echo Company
Buy Now for £25.69
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Summary
A powerful work of literary military history from the New York Times best-selling author of In Harm's Way and Horse Soldiers - the harrowing and redemptive account of an American army platoon fighting for survival during the Vietnam War.
On a single night, January 31, 1968, some 100,000 soldiers in the North Vietnamese Army attacked 36 cities throughout South Vietnam, hoping to topple that government and dislodge American forces. The 12 American boys of the recon platoon of the 101st Airborne Division, average age 19, are from small farms, California beach towns, and big cities like Chicago, and they are cast into a war they neither understand nor ultimately feel they can win. The fighting was hand-to-hand, nonstop, and waged in endless small battles that forged this group into a lifelong brotherhood of survivors. The Odyssey of Echo Company is about the young men who survived 60 days on the run from the enemy during the Tet Offensive, at the height of the Vietnam War.
Each young man lived 100 years in these days and came home to a country that did not understand, and didn't try to understand, what they had survived. They came home winners because they were alive but were losers for having fought there. When they arrived, they landed in San Francisco, took off their uniforms, and walked back into America, where they fell silent and realized that not many wanted to hear the remarkable story they had to tell - until now.
Based on hundreds of hours of interviews, dozens of detailed letters written to and from Echo Company soldiers, a huge trove of Pentagon after-action reports, and travel to the scenes of battle with the American soldiers and some of their Vietnamese enemy soldiers, The Odyssey of Echo Company breaks through the wall of time to tell this important story of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.
What listeners say about The Odyssey of Echo Company
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Bot
- 10-08-18
A great book. I would highly recommend.
A great book. Harrowing and thought provoking in places. Also covers the life of the soldier post war, and returning back to Vietnam. The performance is great, at times making you feel like the reader was actually there.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 14-03-20
I did not want it to end, brilliant book.
Loved it, so well written and the narration was the best i have had the pleasure to listen to.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- NEIL B.
- 07-12-22
Excellent
A very good insight into the minds of a soldier fighting not only a war but his own thoughts and feelings, very moving at times and brought tears to my eyes at times , well worth a listen .
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Philip Mackie
- 26-04-22
Emotional listening.
I feel bad about giving this 5 stars as a story as it’s a personal account and deserves far more when you consider all that Stan and his platoon went through.
I think we the narrator dies an excellent job to portray the feelings and images of war in Vietnam. I could almost feel that I was watching things unfold around me.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Richard Martin 5095
- 02-04-22
Detailed first hand account of the Vietnam war
What a great listen. Fascinating first hand account of
the war.
At times in my headphones I felt I was engaged in the battles.
Well narrated. Now I’m gonna listen to it all again !!
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- Tony
- 13-12-17
Great look into what a Nam solder endured.
I would recomend this book to anyone who is interested in the Vietnam War. My father served 2 tours there in the Marines and I have studied this war for years. My father's health is declining rapidly and in listening to this book it gave some of the best insight into my father and his war.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- mike
- 14-05-18
The most intense Nam combat I've ever heard
Buckle up, Doug Stanton takes you on a harrowing ride through the eyes of Stan Parker. Attached to a Recon platoon, Stan saw intense firefights during the Tet offensive. Stan escaped death so many times it's incredible how lucky he was. During Tet and mini-Tet the US suffered the most KIA during the war. I've read about the fierce battle for Hue and Echo Co. was 15 miles north of Hue while that region was under constant attack for months. Story even discusses subjects as PTSD and Agent Orange which effected many in Echo company.
I'm really enjoying the resurgence of Nam combat vets who are now telling their story like the WW2 vets of the late 90's.
I was captivated, we need more books like this!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Julianne
- 10-05-18
Heart reaching
A story that pulls at your heart strings. You hear the internal struggles of a good man in a hellish situation and realize the horrible choices these people had to make. Something I will never be able to fully comprehend. I want to say thank you for this story.
Cpl. Wright
USMC
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- JCOII
- 26-02-18
Just an incredible story and odyssey
So well written...actually had to put the book down a few times given how moving and stirring it was. So very well done. Am glad that Stan asked it to be written...
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Josh vega
- 05-01-18
Amazing, enraging and heart wrenching.
Would recommend to anyone who enjoys and can handle war books. A must read. d
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 22-11-17
WOW, could not stop listening.
I understand better what so many of my friends endured during the conflict. thank you Doug and to all who served.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jeffrey Ammenti
- 03-02-21
A story that needs to be told
After reading dozens of books about the Vietnam war this one captures so many more concepts than any other and in a truly amazing way. A must read
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Steve Hillman MD
- 26-04-18
The real thing.
As a veteran who was in Danang Bay multiple times during the war and spent 3 years in the hostile fire zone, I always wished I’d taken orders to a PBR, till I listened to this book. These men were indeed brutalized by the war, and I thank God He didn’t send me there. And I thank the men and women who did go in my stead; God bless them!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance1 out of 5 stars
-
Story1 out of 5 stars
- JOHN DAVIS
- 05-12-17
An attempt of a historian to be a novelist
Listed as history, the author is enamored with melodrama which appears forced and is in fact boring
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- theinglebaby23
- 16-09-22
One of the best
Put this one right up there with Band of Brothers. Fantastic story, equally written. True heroes.