Eye of the Tiger: Memoir of a United States Marine, Third Force Recon Company, Vietnam Paperback – July 25, 2003

"Eye of the Tiger" is a beautifully written, almost poetic profile of a U.S. Marine in Vietnam. Eddie Delezen was in a USMC Recon Unit from March of '67 to December of '68. These guys were so deep in the bush that they actually infiltrated North Vietnamese Army infiltration routes! This reviewer has read several descriptions of the Vietnamese landscape and even seen a thin portion of it himself. But this observer has never read such keen verbal portraits of Vietnam-so stark, severe, striking and dangerous all at once. Much of the action takes place along (or over) the borders of the DMZ or that place of ultimate mystery, Laos. "Neutral" Laos.The combat stories verge on the surreal, since recon patrols avoided contact with the enemy -in stark contrast to main force units, which sought it. The men also had to avoid contact with the poisonous snakes, vipers and leeches of the boonies. Most of us guys with safe jobs just worried about the rats! ET also features critical basic infantry practice as packing properly for patrol, walking front AND rear point, selecting a nighttime site, setting up the claymores as well as locking in artillery points and radio contacts. Some of that is not new, but Mr. Delezen does a first rate job of tying it all into his basic story. The author also weaves in fascinating descriptions of murky Vietnamese history and its' mysterious geography. It is poignantly obvious that the author came back to the World with a respect for Vietnam, a departure from the attitude of so many vets who never wanted to see the place again. And yes, there is a tiger! While on a listening post one day, the author realized he was not alone. A furry striped friend was watching him! Delezen doesn't fire so as not to expose himself to a possible nearby enemy! That's patrol discipline! This review cannot conclude without acknowledgment to those chopper pilots and door gunners. How many lives did those guys save in the course of the War? How many men did they extract under withering fire? Reading ET will reinforce that thought and give us respect for them anew. A final word: Shoppers SHOULD NOT be deterred from the hardcover price tag for this paperback. ET is worth every penny. The production values are very high. The typesetting is professionally eye pleasing and this reviewer has not enjoyed sharper photos anywhere! McFarland Publishers should be proud of their first rate work, the guys in the recon units proud of their service to their country and author should be proud of his intense report of Marines in stealthy combat.

I like the John's story and it looks like he wrote it himself. Style is eloquent. John has an eye for the beauty of NW I-Corps and the terror that lived there during the war.I have not read a book like this that didn't name names: TL, CO, team members. John chose to leave these Marines out and I'm not sure why. Even if he had made up names, identifying who these people were in relationship to him would have added an intimacy and realness that I thought was lacking. It was like John was in a void and no one was real but him. Even one of his best friend's name was left out -- in the book, John calls him ''the Sergeant''. Why?My major complaint is that there seemed to be missions where when the team took a break, they'd kick back and light up. Huh? In no other book I've read about Recon do teams smoke while on a mission. Maybe I misread and he wasn't on a mission but somewhere else -- like a FOB, or in the rear somewhere.Lighting up on a mission can't be right. I have to be wrong on this.Great ending where I thought John found some happiness and peace in the Keys and fishing. God bless him -- he deserves everything he gets.Thank you for serving John and doing work others wouldn't do.

Bought for family member. They loved the stories and how well was written

First, a bit about my perspective on this book. I was an S-2 Infantry Scout with the First Battalion, First Marines (1-1) in 1965-66 and experienced small unit (5-6 man) recon patrols into the jungled mountains and valleys near Khe Sanh and other Eye Corps locales described in this book. (Phil Caputo's deservedly famous book, "A Rumor of War", was mainly about his experiences as a platoon leader of Charlie Company 1-1 in the Danang TAOR during the first four months of my tour, and I had first-hand experience of many of the indviduals, locales and events described there.)Over the past ten years or so, I have read 40-50 books about Vietnam combat experience, mainly by USMC vets writing of their own experiences, but not exclusively.So that's the basis of my perspective on this relatively obscure book.For me it is among the best 3-4 of the books I have read on this war and any other. The author is simply gifted: as noted by one of the other reviewers, he has the unusual ability to describe scenes and emotions in a way that places you, the reader, inside his mind's eye and sensory perceptions: I relived the smell, the sounds, images, tensions and emotions he takes you the reader through. His word-pictures are almost lyrical, like paintings, as he describes the incredible physical beauty, history and culture of Vietnam in the sympathetic light that most of the thoughtful among my companions felt at the time -- and that includes an admiration and professional respect for the bravery, commmitment, hardship endurance and fighting skills of our adversaries, and a sympathy for the suffering and hardship of the civilians caught up in a war not of their choosing.In summary, I recommend this book most highly, first to all Marine Viet vets, as both a pleasurable reading experience and an expert writer's articulation of the experiences, emotions and memories that many of us shared with him and brought back with us. He deserves our thanks for capturing that intense, complex experience and memory so expertly. For the general reading public, all I can say is--if you want to truly experience with an almost firsthand immediacy what it was like out there in the bush, at least for those of us who experienced the special thrills and terrors of small unit recon patrols, there is no better book ever likely to be written about that (now long ago) time and (very distant) place.