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  • Life and Death in the Central Highlands

  • An American Sergeant in the Vietnam War, 1968-1970 (North Texas Military Biography and Memoir Series)
  • By: James T. Gillam
  • Narrated by: Todd Belcher
  • Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (49 ratings)
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Life and Death in the Central Highlands cover art

Life and Death in the Central Highlands

By: James T. Gillam
Narrated by: Todd Belcher
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Summary

In 1968 James T. Gillam was a poorly focused college student at Ohio University who was dismissed and then drafted into the Army. Unlike most African-Americans who entered the Army then, he became a Sergeant and an instructor at the Fort McClellan Alabama School of Infantry. In September 1968 he joined the First Battalion, 22nd Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division in Vietnam. Within a month he transformed from an uncertain sergeant-who tried to avoid combat-to an aggressive soldier, killing his first enemy and planning and executing successful ambushes in the jungle. Gillam was a regular point man and occasional tunnel rat who fought below ground, an arena that few people knew about until after the war ended. By January 1970 he had earned a Combat Infantry Badge and been promoted to Staff Sergeant.

Then Washington's politics and military strategy took his battalion to the border of Cambodia. Search-and-destroy missions became longer and deadlier. From January to May his unit hunted and killed the enemy in a series of intense firefights, some of them in close combat. In those months Gillam was shot twice and struck by shrapnel twice. He became a savage, strangling a soldier in hand-to-hand combat inside a lightless tunnel. As his mid-summer date to return home approached, Gillam became fiercely determined to come home alive. The ultimate test of that determination came during the Cambodian invasion. On his last night in Cambodia, the enemy got inside the wire of the firebase, and the killing became close range and brutal.

Gillam left the Army in June 1970, and within two weeks of his last encounter with death, he was once again a college student and destined to become a university professor. The nightmares and guilt about killing are gone, and so is the callous on his soul. Life and Death in the Central Highlands is a gripping, personal account of one soldier's war in the Vietnam War.

Number 5 in the North Texas Military Biography and Memoir Series

©2010 James T. Gillam (P)2014 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

“Jim Gillam experienced real combat in his Vietnam tour. His stunning accounts of killing and avoiding being killed ring true. Although wounded several times, Jim did not leave the field for treatment in a field hospital, so he never generated the paperwork for a Purple Heart or two or three. Although he would be appalled at the thought, his attention to duty was ‘lifer' behavior, a concern for the well-being of his squad that represents the best of NCO leadership in any army.” (Allan R. Millett, author of Semper Fidelis and coauthor of A War to Be Won)
“[Gillam] looks back on his experiences of Vietnam not solely as a participant in the war, but also with the critical eye of a trained historian. . . . [He] uses an impressive array of after action reports, duty officer logs, battlefield reports, and other primary source material, to back up and reinforce his recollections.” ( Journal of Military History review by James H. Willbanks, author of The Tet Offensive)
“Gillam, a ‘shake and bake' sergeant, presents a good account of small unit infantry action during the war. He is very good at explaining the weaponry, tactics, and living conditions in the field.” (James E. Westheider, author of The African-American Experience in Vietnam)

What listeners say about Life and Death in the Central Highlands

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Could have been so much better

I listen or read many biographies and autobiography by. Vietnam veterans as it brings the whole sorry conflict to life when told by those who lived the war.
Death in the Central Highlands hit many of the right spots for me around personal experiences and emotions of the individual and unit. Where I felt this personal story was let down was by the narrator and a fairly flat delivery.
My other minor critique was there were just too many lists of names of people who were there but didn’t feature in any other significant way. Although I appreciate the list of names is a fitting tribute to those brave soldiers who fought and died in Vietnam and Cambodia.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent

One of the best memoirs of the conflict if listened too from the heart and no glossing over .

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Gritty, Grunts eye view of Vietnam.

A sobering and hard hitting memoir from 1969/70. Really engrossing with superb detail , superb for anyone wanting to know what that war was like for the Infantry.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Vietnam Uncut

I've listened to lots of Vietnam War factual books, but this book was probably the most personally candid, detailed and frightening one I've heard (so far) and that's not to undermine all the others, where I developed a great respect for all the authors/ warriors. I'm left with total admiration, respect and pity for James, that life's events put him in such a very dark, prolonged terrifying situation, but thank goodness he came through it and has deservedly been able to live a happier and fulfilling life. The first world war adage of Lions led by Donkeys in some cases springs to mind in the book, in an attritional war the USA "declined" to win-a very thought provoking and interesting choice of words.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Well written, poorly read

When the passage in the book is describing having to beat a person to death in a pitch black tunnel with you bare hands (a person that very well may have actually been a woman), or having to kill a person face to face with a knife in a deadly hand to hand combat situation, what is being described are moments of pure adrenaline filled stark terror and extreme aggression, followed by equally powerful moments of revulsion and remorse - it is NOT appropriate to read this in a straight deadpan delivery like some emotionless machine.

What makes this book so unique and interesting is that it is the story of a well-educated black NCO. That makes it from a rare perspective when it comes to Vietnam memoirs. It is written from a very honest personal viewpoint on the one hand, but also in a very scholarly way on the other. I urge you to read the book as the guy reading this version ruins it.

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A great read! (listen)

A great book! and with the authors post war education in history, he is able to give you both the little picture as the man on the ground, and the big picture with data, research, and archive access

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Thrilling and informative

narration was a little stale but the story was told. a great story for a hard worker.

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