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I first met Lieutenant Ken Sympson when I assumed command of the "Magnificent Bastards" of the 2d Battalion, 4th Marines in the Republic of Vietnam during February 1966. At the time he was the artillery liaison officer for the battalion. Some twenty-six years later, we met again for the first time since our days together in Vietnam. Only then did I learn that for him, "Images from the Otherland" still lingered and that he had contracted non-Hodgkin's lymphoma several years before. In this book he talks about these subjects with extraordinary sensitivity. To better understand the depth of feeling Marines like Ken Sympson have for those who served with them in Vietnam--particularly those who made the supreme sacrifice--one has only to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in our nation's capital. In doing so, however, I strongly suggest that such visit take place during the quiet and lonely hours of darkness. It is then that you will see the bowed heads and bent knees of friends and loved ones paying a silent and emotional tribute to their fallen warrior. During one of our conversations, the author indicated that a significant portion of the book discusses the period when he was attached to the 2d Battalion, 4th Marines and that the key chapter is on Operation Texas. Because of its relatively short duration, Operation Texas has never been given its rightful place in history. For those who were there on March 21, 1966, however, it is a day they shall always remember. In the words of Major Ernie DeFazio, who was my executive officer at the time and who had landed on the beach at Iwo Jima as a young enlisted marine over two decades before, "Texas was the longest and toughest day of my life." In a matter of hours, the artillery pieces under the direction of Ken Sympson fired over 2,500 rounds. Needless to say, were it not for Ken and his small liaison team there would be many more names etched on the black granite of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Unlike the grossly distorted Hollywood images of the war in Vietnam, Images from the Otherland is a warm, genuine, and accurate story of men in combat, written by one of their own. To the tens of thousands of Marines who served in Vietnam, this book is compelling reading. To the American public it is but one of many such stories, most of which will never be told; all have a heart and a soul. All Americans should thank God for humble and self-effacing men like Ken Sympson, for if our nation is to remain the land of the free, it must always be the home of the brave.
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