Echoes of a Distant Past: Screaming Eagles: A Vietnam War Memoir

In 1970, Operation Texas Star became the last major battle of the Vietnam War fought by US forces. Fought over five months from March through September in the A Shau Valley and adjacent eastern mountainous jungles of South Vietnam, the operation included the battle of Hills 714 and 882. Author Eraldo Lucero served in the 101st Airborne during this time and presents his account of the soldiers who fought there. Lucero's memoir depicts the horrors of war and its psychological effects on those who experienced combat. The book examines both immediate battle conditions and long-term consequences, including post-traumatic stress disorder and other unseen wounds carried by veterans long after combat ended. Thirty-five years after the war's end, Lucero reconnects with fellow Vietnam veterans to illustrate how war's effects persist in their daily lives. The A Shau Valley itself emerges as a central element of the narrative—an unrelenting environment of violence and death that fundamentally altered those who endured it. The memoir offers a firsthand perspective on the Vietnam War as experienced by combat infantrymen.