Key Information
The Men Behind the Scarf: The Battle of Chop Vum, By P. F. Krause
2020 [ISBN: 978-1-58107-346-1; 220 pages soft cover; 6-by-9-inch] Price $8.95
A group of men gathered at a table, while a few others stood nearby listening and occasionally contributing to the conversation. They were looking at pictures taken over 40 years ago in Vietnam and recalling the events of a particular battle in which they were involved in.
I was listening in silent astonishment as I heard the stories they were unfolding.
These were Vietnam Veterans meeting at a Company reunion.
The aging veterans openly shared their stories. They answered any and all questions I had. The experience prompted me to capture their stories, in tape recordings and photos, and save them in a scrapbook that is also being published. I can read their stories over and over, and still I am amazed and awed with their courage and strength. They are truly heroes in every sense of the word.
I have written this book to share some of their experiences at Chop Vum. This story is not meant to be accurate. It is a fictional novel. I have taken the liberty to inject subject matter to fill in the blanks and make the story cohesive. The characters are not real, either. I have made them up to fit the plot.
It is based on a true account, and the sacrifices made reflect the cost of this war on our veterans and their families.
I have learned that each man has his own story. Sometimes the accounts of the same battle are different. This makes perfect sense to me. Each person was in a different place and saw a different view. Also, many years had passed since the battle. It makes no difference to me who is most accurate. The important thing is that each man shared their story.
The events of each day are taken from the men as well as the Daily Staff Journals of the 1st Battalion, 52nd Infantry, compiled during the units approximately four years in Vietnam.
Interviews of the veterans involved in the battle are contained in Hill 288, Chop Vum, the companion work to this novel. Like this book, it is available on Amazon.com.
About the Author
Peggy Krause is the wife of a Vietnam Veteran. She met her husband, Philip, in 1970. He had just been discharged from the hospital in Fort Riley, Kansas, where he had been recovering for over a year from his injuries sustained in Vietnam. She is a wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother.
She worked as a nurse for over forty years, of which thirty were spent working in a state Veteran’s Home. This is her first attempt at publishing books, although she had been involved in co-authoring many publications in medical journals.
The Vietnam Veterans she met at her husband’s Charlie Company reunions touched her heart, and inspired her to publish both a novel and an accompanying book, which records the veteran’s true stories. Her hope is to give back to the veterans by making others more aware of the sacrifices given by these brave men.