Fire in the Hole

Combat Engineers. The Unsung Heroes of Vietnam.

August 25, 1966. Specialist Dan Crowley was among the handful of demolition experts assigned to a route clearing mission in support of Operation AMARILLO. His equipment load was the same as it had been numerous times before: a Claymore mine, TNT, C-4 explosives, blasting caps, time fuse, det cord, eighteen rounds for his M-79 grenade launcher, two hand grenades, and his Colt .45.

But this would be no ordinary mission.

The Viet Cong had just surrounded an American patrol along Highway 16. Crowley's outfit - Charlie Company, 1st Engineer Battalion - was among the smattering of units thrown together for this impromptu "relief force." History would call it the Battle of Bong Trang.

In a war dominated by airmobile infantry, the combat engineers played a critical role in shaping America's battlefield victories. They built obstacles, dug defensive positions, set landmines, performed various types of demolition, and could fight as infantry whenever ordered.

Fire in the Hole tells the story of Charlie Company, 1st Engineer Battalion during their deployment to the Republic of Vietnam in 1965-66. Told from the perspective of four Charlie Company veterans - Dan Crowley, Larry Blair, Chuck Humphrey, and Jay Franz - this book provides an intimate, no-holds-barred account of the combat engineers in Vietnam.