dead pan, re your comment on "The 13th Valley": the bloke who put me on to it knew the author well and was there with him, in the same unit. He told me that although the story was 'novelised', it was very close to what he and his comrades went through in the Au Shau valley in their first tour. I have to agree; a damn fine read, as is another Vietnam classic, "We Were Soldiers Once, and Young".