Vietnam Ground Zero 5: Soldier's Medal by Eric Helm

Vietnam Ground Zero 5
Soldier's Medal
by Eric Helm
1987 Gold Eagle

A nineteen year old sergeant , wracked with survivor's guilt and denied a medal as the last man to survive an attack, goes rogue and takes a team of Vietnamese strikers into the jungle. Gerber and Fetterman pursue, to talk him down or take him out.

Some introspection, as Gerber is completely aware that the AWOL soldier's actions aren't that much different from what the Army is usually up to. Morrow is mentioned but doesn't appear, which is preferable to being captured and tortured like the last two books.

Available from Amazon

Bloody Pile of Horror - United States Title Match Results

 

Matt Helm's forces are routed, and Vietnam Ground Zero defends the belt from one more assault.

Vietnam Ground Zero 4: The Fall Of Camp A-555 by Eric Helm

Vietnam Ground Zero 4
The Fall Of Camp A-555
by Eric Helm (Kevin Randle)
1986 Gold Eagle

While the bulk of the troops are on a mission to rescue a VIP downed behind enemy lines, traitors among the South Vietnamese troops allow a takeover of Camp A-555, with journalist Robin Morrow taken captive.

The re-taking of the camp plays out as a series of small skirmishes. This series works better on a smaller scale, and I didn't get a sense that hundreds of people were involved. This is the second book in a row in which Morrow is captured and tortured, this time with even less emotional impact than the last - hopefully this doesn't become part of a formula.

Available from Amazon

Vietnam: Ground Zero 3 - Unconfirmed Kill by Eric Helm

Vietnam: Ground Zero 3
Unconfirmed Kill
by Eric Helm
1986 Gold Eagle

The soldiers of get some well deserved leave. Gerber and Fetterman join reporter Morrow in Hong Kong, only to be subject to assassination attempts by the Chinese officer that has been plotting against them. When Morrow is kidnapped, Gerber calls in the rest of the soldiers from their vacations to mount a rescue mission.

The finale is a raid on a Victorian mansion in suburban Hong Kong, the set up to a hundred HK action movie scenes. Add to that Fetterman jumping around, a pistol in each hand, and I find it hard to believe this came out only four months after A Better Tomorrow. I know there were shootout movies prior to that, but this hits on so many Heroic Bloodshed elements that weren't common at the time.

Available in ebook and paperback from Amazon.

Vietnam Ground Zero 2: POW by Eric Helm

Vietnam Ground Zero 2
POW
by Eric Helm (Kevin Randle and Robert Cornett)
1986 Gold Eagle

Captain Gerber and crew set up an ambush for a Vietcong patrol only to fall into a trap themselves. Demolitions expert Sully Smith and Sgt. Krung fight their way back to Camp A-555 while Washington, Tyme, and Fetterman are captured and tortured by the sadistic Major Vo.

There is a little bit of a continuing story, in the form of the romance between Gerber and journalist Robin and the mysterious Chinese advisor from the first installment. The continuing characters aren't as specifically defined as they are in other war based Men's Adventure series, which feels more realistic and results in a story more driven by the war itself than the characters.

Great action and adventure. A great sequence with Sully using his remaining explosives to lay a trap for a VC patrol and the resulting carnage. The ending rescue was rushed, and the series did great harm to it's gritty verisimilitude by having Fetterman be a full blown ninja at the end. I'm not a military historian, but I'm willing to bet there was not a single casualty in the entire conflict from a shuriken to the forehead.

Available in Kindle ebook and paperback from Amazon.

Vietnam Ground Zero by Eric Helm

Vietnam Ground Zero 
by Eric Helm (Kevin D. Randle and Robert Cornett)
1986 Gold Eagle

Captain Gerber, stationed in the Mekong Delta, sends an assassination team into Cambodia to assassinate a Chinese officer who's been supporting the NVA. Word of the hit travels to a general who has it out for Gerber, and two of his men are court martialed.

The initial hit was superbly written - suspenseful, action packed, and if it wasn't historically accurate it faked it well enough. The bit with the trial, and the efforts of Gerber to free his men, made less sense. To prove that his men were innocent of the war crime they definitely committed, they proceed to commit another war crime, travelling back to Cambodia.

The idea, I guess, was either to prove they had a good reason for the assassination or to blackmail the general into an acquittal by threatening to publicize it. This depends on a reporter withholding the story of her career because she's banging the Captain, but also begs the question of why the General held the court martial in the first place when he could have just ignored the hit and kept it quiet.

I don't mind sketchy plot devices as rubber bands to hold action scenes together, but narratively the action scenes just set up the court martial, which held up the bulk of the story. The female reporter shoehorned in to squeeze in a sex scene didn't help either.

The military scenes were well written, and we could have done with more of that. The second incursion felt like Randle and Cornett got bored halfway through and ended it early, and the next potential action scene, an escape from the brig, was entirely off page. 

This felt like a standalone novel, but it's actually the fifth in the series - it was preceded by four titles under the title Scorpion Squad. It doesn't act like a typical men's adventure war novel. As a solo title, Captain Gerber hardly sees any action, and it's not a typical Howling Commandos style squad. I'm not sure any of these characters are even in the final installment, Zebra Cube.

The whole series is available on Kindle, and as of this writing free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.