ALWAYS FAITHFUL

The reality of the Vietnam War still eludes the American public. Consider this: The average infantryman saw roughly 40 days of combat in World War II; for the soldier or Marine in Vietnam, it was 240 days. Between 1968 and 1969, Mike Company saw a casualty rate of nearly 100 percent. And yet Van Riper’s Marines and their brothers-in-arms demonstrated extraordinary resilience and fighting spirit, which makes them as much a “greatest generation” as their fathers.