This image is the cover for the book Blackhorse Tales

Blackhorse Tales

The war stories and combat narratives of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment during five-and-a-half years of combat in Vietnam.

When the U.S. Army went to war in South Vietnam in 1965, the general consensus was that counterinsurgency was an infantryman’s war; if there were any role at all for armored forces, it would be strictly to support the infantry. However, from the time the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment arrived in the country in September 1966, troopers of the Blackhorse Regiment demonstrated the fallacy of this assumption. By the time of Tet ’68, the Army’s leadership began to understand that the Regiment’s mobility, firepower, flexibility, and leadership made a difference on the battlefield well beyond its numbers.

Over the course of the 11th Cavalry’s five-and-a-half years in combat in South Vietnam and Cambodia, over 25,000 young men served in the Regiment. Their stories—and those of their families—represent the Vietnam generation in graphic, sometimes humorous, often heart-wrenching detail. Collected by the author through hundreds of in-person, telephone, and electronic interviews over a period of twenty-five-plus years, these “war stories” provide context for the companion volume, The Blackhorse in Vietnam.

Amongst the stories of the Blackhorse troopers and their families are the tales of the wide variety of animals they encountered during their time in combat, as well as the variable landscape, from jungle to rice paddies, and weather. Blackhorse Tales concludes with a look at how the troopers dealt with their combat experiences since returning from Vietnam.

“Without question, Donald Snedeker has paid a fitting tribute to this superb unit, its soldiers, and their families.” —Military Review

Don Snedeker

Don Snedeker is a second-generation Blackhorse trooper. He was commissioned in Armor Branch and arrived in Vietnam in late 1969. He was briefly assigned to the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, then served with the 2nd Squadron, 1st Armored Cavalry Regiment (Blackhawks), serving as an armored cavalry platoon leader and the Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol platoon leader. Don returned to the 11th Cavalry in Germany, serving from 1976 to 1978 as the commander of Bravo Troop. Don retired from active military service in 1992. For the past 30 years, Don has served as the historian for the 11th Armored Cavalry Veterans of Vietnam and Cambodia. He is the author of The Blackhorse in Vietnam: The 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam and Cambodia, 1966–1972. Don and his wife Victoria live in Falls Church, Virginia.

CASEMATE PUBLISHERS