A Rifle Company's Tale

 All of you Marine Veterans out there should read this appeal from George Navadel. If you were in country from 1966 to 1967 you will know that George was India Company’s Skipper. He has again taken the leadership role to put our history in print. All he asks is for you to send him your memories.  Make no mistake, this is not a small undertaking.  George could have finalized A Rifle Company’s Tale after the first printing. He wants everyone to have the opportunity to contribute to this first hand history.

A fourth expanded edition of A Rifle Company's Tale covering India Company's actions in Vietnam from August 1966 to August 1967 is being prepared to include the personal accounts of every member of the Flaming "I" who choose to be added to the list of contributors.

The current edition was prepared for the 2004 Gettysburg reunion. Due to the interest and additional input generated at the 2006 San Antonio reunion, the upcoming revision will hopefully bring even more troopers into our historical account and generate some funds to offset the up-front costs of the 2008 reunion. The extra funds are generated from the sale of the CD version at $15. My son makes them for us so the amount over cost goes to reunion/COMWIRE. Those who want a hard copy pay very close to cost of production so there is little if any to go to the reunion fund. The cost of the hard copy with laminated cover or hard bound will be determined once the number of copies and final cost can be determined.

This is an appeal to those who served during the period covered by the book and have their story to tell and have not done so. Please communicate with me by the means easiest for you: email, snail mail, phone call, tape. To date I have approximately forty additional pages of input that add to the battles of 3 and 5 September '66, Antenna Valley, Getlin's Corner 30 March '67 and a bunch of great Okinawa liberty stories and other events that occurred when we were "relaxing" out of the bush. (No wonder some of you took forty years to let it out. Your CO and Top at the time would have had gray hair or gone bald a lot earlier.)

I want every one of the participants to have the opportunity to get their experiences in print. You owe it to your kids and grandkids as well as to your selves and your brothers in combat. I have ten years on most of you so actuary tables are creeping up. This could well be the last revision. (How is that for a tear jerker appeal.)

Semper Fidelis,

George

P.S. There is movement afoot to extend India's Vietnam participation beyond that covered by the Tale. This should be an item for the 2008 reunion.