u/stoatsandwich

Posted these on r/medals for identification help but I figured this group would enjoy too. Dad was 3rd Force Recon in Vietnam. He wrote a couple of books about it in the 90s but he’s not around anymore so I kind of wanted to brag on him.

To me he was just Dad. But from what I hear from the guys he served with he was pretty damn terrifying.

Edit:
I didn’t realize the scope of just how badass he was.

For those asking - LtCol Alex Lee and his books were “Force Recon Command” and “Utter’s Battalion”

If you became a marine at Pendleton in the mid 90s there’s a good chance dad spoke at your graduation and I was asleep on the bleachers with my baseball glove or cap gun.

Edit Part 2:

I’ve received a lot of DMs and yes, his books did not sell well. They were full of bitterness at higher leadership and his homecoming from Vietnam. I will tell you all the ONE change that was insisted on by the editor - even though it was a falsehood. The dog on the cover of the first book is named something stupid like “Trigger” or “TigerBlood” or something in the book. That’d because the dog was a camp stray and was the “shittiest dog in history” per dad. His name was actually “Bok-Chang the Asshole”.

I never wrote down what dad said all these were for. I’m going to dig through his DD214 for citations but my kids are asking about them and I hate not knowing what each one means. FWIW Dad wrote two books about his time in Vietnam but he never dove into his rack, his stories were always about his brothers in the marines.

Edit: to not break rule 4

Also for those asking, LtCol Alex Lee and his books were “Force Recon Command” and “Utter’s Battalion”