First Force Recon Company: Sunrise at Midnight [Paperback]

In 1st Force Recon you performed at a very high level of proficiency. Or you died. . . .

In 1969, First Lieutenant Bill Peters and the Force Recon Marines had one of the most difficult, dangerous assignments in Vietnam. From the DMZ to the Central Highlands, their job was to provide strategic and operational intelligence to insure the security of American units as the withdrawal of the troops progressed.

Making perilous helicopter inserts deep in the Que Son Mountains, where the constant chatter of AK-47 rifle fire left no doubt who was in charge, Peters and the other men of 1st Force Recon Company risked their lives every day in six-man teams, never knowing whether they would live to see the sunset. Peters's accounts of silently watching huge movements of heavily armed NVA regulars, prisoner snatches, sudden-death ambushes, and extracts from fiercely fought firefights vividly capture the realities of Recon Marine warfare, and offer a gritty tribute to the courage, heroism, and sacrifice of the U. S. Marines. . . .Dr. Bill Peters was born and raised forty miles east of San Francisco in the Livermore Valley. He attended San Francisco State University in the late sixties, where he was a star linebacker for their Far Western Conference championship football team. In 1967, Peters joined the San Francisco State football coaching staff and helped the nationally ranked team capture a postseason bowl game victory.

Bill Peters was commissioned in the Marines via Officer Candidate School. After completing the Basic School at Quantico, Virginia, in 1969, he was assigned to Vietnam as a Force Recon platoon commander, where he conducted twenty-three long-range patrols in enemy-controlled territory. His personal awards include a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, one with V (for valor), and a Purple Heart.

In addition to a B.A. degree from San Francisco State University, Dr. Peters has a California Life-Time Credential in Education, a Masters of Divinity, lÛ