Life and Death in the Central Highlands: An American Sergeant in the Vietnam War, 1968-1970 
Written by: James T. Gillam
Narrated by: Todd Belcher
Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins 
Series: North Texas Military Biography and Memoir Series, Book 2
Unabridged Audiobook
Release Date:03-10-14
Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

4.60 (51 ratings)

In 1968 James T. Gillam was a poorly focused college student at Ohio University who was dismissed and then drafted into the Army. Unlike most African-Americans who entered the Army then, he became a Sergeant and an instructor at the Fort McClellan Alabama School of Infantry. In September 1968 he joined the First Battalion, 22nd Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division in Vietnam. Within a month he transformed from an uncertain sergeant-who tried to avoid combat-to an aggressive soldier, killing his first enemy and planning and executing successful ambushes in the jungle. Gillam was a regular point man and occasional tunnel rat who fought below ground, an arena that few people knew about until after the war ended. By January 1970 he had earned a Combat Infantry Badge and been promoted to Staff Sergeant