Lunch at the Mekong Restaurant

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  When people ask me to try and sum up what the book is about,  I usually refer them to Mike Connolly’s statement which is printed, in part, on the back cover.   Mike was our tactical commander on the Vinh Te Canal in 1969, and he also became a friend.   However, I had not spoken with him since the war… until I got involved in writing this book.

I knew that to complete the story about Jim Rost, I needed to seek Mike out.   I found him living in Lynchburg, VA and arranged to meet him one day in Richmond for lunch.  Much of what we talked about that day is now in chapter 11, “Engineer.”  The place that Mike suggested we meet couldn’t have had a better name—it served Vietnamese food and was called “The Mekong Restaurant.”

I hope that his comments in the book and in this review, help the reader better understand what my goals and aspirations were when I undertook the writing of it.

Rolland Kidder

A Review of Backtracking in Brown Water  

In Backtracking, Rolly Kidder has delivered a brilliant chronicle of a part of the Vietnam conflict with which many may not be familiar. His own tour of duty on the rivers of Vietnam brought him in contact with two sailors and one soldier who would lose their lives there. Forty years later, he revisited Vietnam and began to track down the families of the three men, and evaluate the impact of the loss on those families.

For anyone who served in the Delta, this account will evoke a full spectrum of memories. For those who did not serve there, it presents a superb study of the many facets of the Army and Navy activity in 1969 and 1970. Using his journal entries of the period and interviews with fellow combatants, he builds a compelling picture of what was happening in the Vietnam Delta. His follow-up visit to Vietnam forty years later is deftly presented without taint – neither remorse nor bias. 

Kidder’s recounting of his visits with the families of the three servicemen is a poignant reminder of the continuing grief, as well as pride, extant amongst many and is a fitting memorial to the Army and Riverine heroes and an honor to those who mourn them.

Captain M.B. Connolly, USN (retired)   

Commander, River Assault Division 132 / River Assault Squadron 13, 1969-70