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Abandoned in Hell: The Fight For Vietnam's Firebase Kate Audiobook
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In October 1969, Captain William Albracht, the youngest Green Beret in Vietnam, took command of a remote hilltop outpost called Fire Base Kate, held by only 27 American soldiers and 150 Montagnard militiamen. He found their defenses woefully unprepared. At dawn the next morning, three North Vietnamese Army regiments-some 6,000 men-crossed the Cambodian border and attacked. Outnumbered three dozen to one, Albracht's men held off repeated ground assaults by communist forces with fierce hand-to-hand fighting, air support and a dangerously close B-52 strike. For days, the NVA blanketed Kate in a rain of rockets, mortars, artillery, machineguns, and small arms, blocking efforts to resupply, reinforce, or evacuate the outpost. Albracht continually exposed himself to enemy fire to direct air strikes, to guide re-supply helicopters, to distribute ammunition and water to his men, to retrieve the dead and to rescue the wounded, often shielding men with his own body. Wounded by rocket shrapnel, he refused medical attention or evacuation. Exhausted from days without sleep, he continued to rally his men to beat off each new enemy attack. After five days, Kate's defenders were out of ammo and water. aerial resupply was suicidal, and reinforcements were denied by military commanders who had written off Kate. Albracht refused to surrender or die in place. Refusing to allow his men to surrender, Albracht led his troops, including many wounded, off the hill and on a daring night march through enemy lines. Abandoned in Hell is an astonishing memoir of leadership, sacrifice, and brutal violence, a riveting journey into Vietnam's heart of darkness, and a compelling reminder of the transformational power of individual heroism. Not since Lone Survivor and We Were Soldiers Once, And Young has there been such a gripping and authentic account of battlefield courage.
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“This fast-paced narrative encapsulates Vietnam War themes, significantly the bravery of grunts and company grade officers and their loyalty to one another, and also bureaucratic mistakes with tragic consequences made by inexperienced officers and government officials too far removed from front-line action…Readers of such excellent battlefield works as Harold Moore and Joseph Galloway’s We Were Soldiers Once…And Young will delve into this one.”
— Library Journal
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About the Authors
Joseph L. Galloway (1941—2021) was an American newspaper correspondent and columnist. At seventeen he was a reporter on a daily newspaper, at nineteen a bureau chief for United Press International, then a senior writer with US. News & World Report, where he covered the Gulf War. He is the author and co-author of several books, including We Were Soldiers Once and Young, a New York Times bestseller and the basis of the film starring Mel Gibson, and of the bestselling sequel, We Are Soldiers Still. He was decorated with a Bronze Star Medal, the only medal of valor the US Army awarded to a civilian in the Vietnam War.
Brian O’Neill is a resident of New York City where he has worked continually in all aspects of the entertainment industry as a writer, actor, director, musician, and filmmaker for over twenty-five years. He currently serves on the faculty of the New York Film Academy as an acting instructor.
Brian O’Neill is a resident of New York City where he has worked continually in all aspects of the entertainment industry as a writer, actor, director, musician, and filmmaker for over twenty-five years. He currently serves on the faculty of the New York Film Academy as an acting instructor.