He and three others were awarded the Navy Cross-the most given for one action in Vietnam to a single rifle company. In the excerpt that follows, he recounts the March 1969 assault on Hill 484 that brought out his true valor. In one chapter, he candidly describes how it was his lust for a medal that led him to rescue Utter, a wounded member of his platoon. Marlantes returns to the subject of heroism in his forthcoming memoir, What It Is Like to Go to War (Atlantic Monthly Press), in which he uses his 13-month tour of duty to explore deep questions on what it means to be a soldier-questions about killing, loyalty, and facing death. Whatever that war’s controversy, Marlantes makes clear that the men he fought with measured up to the Greatest Generation that took on Adolf Hitler. Based on his experiences as an officer and platoon leader in the 3rd Marine Division in Vietnam in the late 1960s, the 2010 novel was hailed as an instant war classic that broke with Vietnam literature of the past. It took Karl Marlantes 30 years to write and publish his first book, Matterhorn. Karl Marlantes in Vietnam: What It Takes to Be a Hero Close
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