Soul Patrol: The Riveting True Story of the First African American LRRP Team in Vietnam - Softcover

* Contains original photographs * Only book of its kind to focus on an elite African-American unit * Depicts the reality of war alongside social commentary This is the fascinating story of a mainly African-American Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol during the harsh years of war in Vietnam. Told for the first time, and based almost exclusively on accounts by survivors of the unit, this is a unique and thoughtful book on an unusual special force. Soul Patrol deals with brutal combat but also with the prejudice shown to the unit by Army commanders and senior officers. It recounts the awful loneliness of special operations in a jungle environment- and the lethal tactics of the Vietcong - and illustrates just how the war was fought. But it doesn't spare the reader the terrible consequences of the enormous pressure, the anxiety and the effects of such danger on the minds of young men sent to war.

LRRPs had to be the best.
Anything less meant certain death.

When Ed Emanuel was handpicked for the first African American special operations LRRP team in Vietnam, he knew his six-man team couldn’t have asked for a tougher proving ground than Cu Chi in the summer of 196868. Home to the largest Viet cong tunnel complex in Vietnam, Cu Chi was the deadly heart of the enemy’s stronghold in Tay Ninh Province.

Team 2/6 of Company F, 51st Infantry, was quickly dubbed the Soul Patrol, a gimmicky label that belied the true depth of their courage. Stark and compelling, Emanuel’s account provides an unforgettable look at the horror and the heroism that became the daily fare of LRRPs in Vietnam. Every mission was a tightrope walk between life and death as Emanuel’s team penetrated NVA bases, sidestepped lethal booby traps, or found themselves ambushed and forced to fight their way back to the LZ to survive. Emanuel’s gripping memoir is an enduring testament to the valor of all American LRRPs, who courageously risked their lives so that others might be free.