Col. Chace,

Good to hear from you. Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to touch base and give you a report on how well our "mini-reunion" went in D.C. during Veteran's Day.

John Mcgowan, Steve Mawhirter, Jim Meehan, and Fred Anderson from my old HQ platoon and I met for three days.

We were joined by Bob Such who was with me on Hill 10 supporting 3/7 with First Platoon, Alpha Company, in 1969.

I have not seen these men for 33 years.

The first day, when we went to "The Wall" the five of us met other Marines who we knew while "in country."

That was Nov 10, the Marine Corps birthday.

We had quite a party that night as we all stayed at the same place, the Holiday Inn Hotel on 550 C Street.

On Veteran's Day it poured rained but we all were able to march the distance the "the Wall" and participate in the ceremonies.

We again found others that we had not seen in years.

Over 22,000 veterans attended the weekend "20th Anniversary of the Wall."

All of us remembered you as the best Battalion CO we had during our tours in the Marine Corps.

We talked a lot about Marble Mountain and the various fire fights.

Steve Mawhirter became a DI, and happened to run into several folks over the years.

We were trying to remember the name of your jeep driver from New Bedford. He was Portugese, I believe. Do you recall his name?

Also, Fred Anderson's neice is going to set up a website call Marble Mt Org where we plan to post pictures and recollections, etc. I wanted you to know about the site as well as how fondly you were remembered by your men.

Semper Fi,
Dan Guenther, former Captain, USMC

To Dan G.

Thanks for your interesting e-mail about your mini reunion in Wash.DC and your trips to the Wall. There is nothing better than getting together after 33 years after you last your friends at the Marble Mountains in RVN. I appreciate your thinking of me and the kind words expressed.

I am all for these web sites about Amtracers and Vietnam. Although it was almost 35 years ago, it was just like yesterday when I think about being there....my most differcult adjustment is remembering Marines as they looked at the age of 18 or there abouts....now I face men in their 50's... all of whom are respectable business men, judges and a host of other professional occupations...As often as I visited the Wall having lived near Quantico so long....I never wanted to meet one of mine in tattered clothes and wearing medals of two or more services....and homeless at the Wall. I realize that in most cases.... these broken service men were often the results of the Vietnam experience. leading to drugs and alcohol but many were simple losers. The pride we have as Marines and those Corps values instilled within us at boot camp and basic school.... not only made us the world's best fighting unit..but turned us into responsible citizens.Those of who had the opportunity to lead others .....from Corporal on up...all share in that comraderie. I envy the fact that the five of you had a chance to share that "special somethings" which never leaves us...and only grows stronger as years pass...

Again thaks for e-mail...I would like to share it with others

Stay in touch....God Bless and Semper Fi
Stub Chace

Col Chace,
I thought I would send along a photo that you might find interesting and perhaps worth posting on your site.

The photo is of a wild boar that was shot off Hill 10 in the Sherwood Forest area by Tex of 1st Platoon, Alpha Company, 3rdLVT in May, 1969, at the close of Operation Oklahoma Hills.

Tex is on the left and I am on the right holding the boar's head.

Needless to say, members of the platoon cooked the wild boar and ate it.

Semper Fi,
Dan Guenther

13 Feb 2004

Col. Stub,

Always good to hear from you.

Hope that you are well.

Thanks for your continued interest in the novel.

With respect to "China Wind", periodically I get a call from an old jarhead, often a "tanker'' or a "track rat," who seems to connect with the novel.

But lately several senior, retired Marine officers have also discovered the book; and have found it both "worthy and real" in their experience with respect the leadership challenges faced by young officers.

One called it a true "coming of age novel".

By that I am humbled.

The fact that the book has been recognized feels good.

But, of course, there are many of those. "coming of age novels".

"Fields of Fire" by James Webb is my favorite.

I was with Webb during his time with the 5th Marines down in An Hoa from September, 1969 to December, 1969.

One night, about 0200 hours, when the cloud cover prevented choppers from landing, we ran a react with our tracks from Liberty Bridge down to Henderson Hill to collect wounded Marines, and then headed on to An Hoa.

We were under fire the whole way.

How we made it, I don't know to this day.

All I can say is that it was very rainy and foggy, and the L/Cpl who was driving the lead track knew the road.

I was asked to give a reading at the Air Force Academy a while back as part of their leadership program.

They gave me a nice plaque.

One young cadet asked about displays of courage in Vietnam that I had seen in Vietnam.

I was with P. Van Riper of 3/7 on Operation Oklahoma HIlls as well as during some of that heavy contact off of Hill 10, the Bo Bans, and in the Sherwood Forest in 1969.

So, General Van Riper, (then a Captain) came to mind.

I was also on Go Noi Island in with Capton Robinson of Mike company, 3/1 on Operation Pipestone Canyon in August, 1969.

A battalion of NVA crossed the Song Tru Bong and tried to overrun us one night about 0300 hours.

They got inside our perimeter but Capt. Robinson. was cool.

He had Spooky overhead, walking those speed guns all around our position till morning.

Truly awesome to have survived that experience.

But then I recalled, for the same young cadet, without mentioning names, how I once observed a Marine Battalion Commander calm an extremely violent racial situation, single-handed.

It's not politically correct to say "race riot" anymore, nor to mention folks locking and loading on each other, especailly fellow Marines.

So, what you did that day when you faced those unhappy folks, stacks up in my mind as a kind of "coolness under fire" that tops my list.

As I get older, I understand what great leadership we had, and how by your example, you inspired all of our confidence.

Again, I will never forget that day, and how well you handled that situation.

What courage that took...

Also, the Colorado State University library has a collection of National War literature.

On their website they have nice things to say about "China Wind."

The URL is:

http://manta.library.colostate.edu/archives/vietlit.html Or you can just click here!

One except reads:

Created in 1975, the Vietnam War Literature Collection contains imaginative accounts of Americans fighting in Vietnam. Included are fiction, plays, poetry, artists' sketches and miscellaneous works. Historical, political and autobiographical accounts as well as protest literature set outside the time or place of the Vietnam War are excluded. Holdings now amount to some four thousand items.Many works written during and after the war were issued by vanity presses, printed in short-lived journals or not published at all. Thus, identification and acquisition are challenging and still not complete. While searches for obscure items are always active, most sources for current additions to the collection are trade and mass market publishers. Scholarly and critical studies of Vietnam War literature enhance the core collection and reflect the growing interest of academic researchers and popular writers. There are numerous individual reviews, journal articles, theses, dissertations and books. Many of them are based on work done at Colorado State University. As authors have learned about the collection, a number have contributed manuscripts, drafts, galley proofs and other unpublished material. All of this is available for perusal and research. In the novels, the most common perspective is that of a combat infantryman, and many stories cover a tour of duty. Examples of these that are also notably well-written are Joe Haldeman's War Year, Charles Durden's No Bugles, No Drums and Dan Guenther's China Wind. Other novels feature such characters as nurses, professional officers, spies, reporters and the whole variety of persons who were involved in the war. Three have won National Book Awards. They are Robert Stone's Dog Soldiers (1974), Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato (1978) and Larry Heinemann's Paco's Story (1987). Robert Olen Butler's A Scent of Good Water was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1993. Many short stories in the collection have been included in such anthologies as the O. Henry Awards and The Best American Short Stories.

Semper Fi,
Dan Guenther