Con Thien is a memoir/history of a much-beleaguered Marine outpost of the DMZ Throughout much of 1967, a remote United States Marine firebase only two miles from the demilitarized zone (DMZ) captured the attention of the world’s media. That artillery-scarred outpost was the linchpin of the so-called McNamara Line intended to deter incursions into South Vietnam by the North Vietnamese Army. As such, the fighting along this territory was particularly intense and bloody, and the body count rose daily. Con Thien combines James P. Coan’s personal experiences with information taken from archives, interviews with battle participants, and official documents to construct a powerful story of the daily life and combat on the red clay bulls-eye known as "The Hill of Angels." As a tank platoon leader in Alpha Company, 3d Tank Battalion, 3d Marine Division, Coan was stationed at Con Thien for eight months during his 1967-68 service in Vietnam and witnessed much of the carnage. Con Thien was heavily bombarded by enemy artillery with impunity because it was located in politically sensitive territory and the U.S. government would not permit direct armed response from Marine tanks. Coan, like many other soldiers, began to feel as though the government was as much the enemy as the NVA, yet he continued to fight for his country with all that he had. In his riveting memoir, Coan depicts the hardships of life in the DMZ and the ineffectiveness of much of the U.S. military effort in Vietnam.

A Marine’s highly personal memoir reliving the hellish days of a pivotal conflict of the Vietnam War Con Thien, located only two miles from the demilitarized zone dividing North and South Vietnam, was a United States Marine Corps firebase that was the scene of fierce combat for months on end during 1967. Staving off attacks and ambushes while suffering from ineffectual leadership from Washington as well as media onslaughts, courageous American Marines protected this crucial piece of land at all costs. They would hold Con Thien, but many paid the ultimate price. By the end of the war, more than 1,400 Marines had died and more than 9,000 sustained injuries defending the “Hill of Angels.” For eight months, James P. Coan’s five-tank platoon was assigned to Con Thien while attached to various Marine infantry battalions. A novice second lieutenant at the time, the author kept a diary recording the thoughts, fears, and frustrations that accompanied his life on “The Hill.” Time in the Barrel: A Marine’s Account of the Battle for Con Thien offers an authentic firsthand account of the daily nightmare that was Con Thien. An enticing and fascinating read featuring authentic depictions of combat, it allows readers to fully grasp the enormity of the fierce struggle for Con Thien. The defenders of Con Thien were bombarded with hundreds of rounds of incoming rockets, mortars, and artillery that pounded the beleaguered outpost daily. Monsoon downpours turned the red laterite clay soil into a morass of oozing mud, flooded bunkers and trenches, and made Con Thien a living hell. .Being at Con Thien came to be ruefully referred to by the Marines stationed there as "time in the barrel” because they were targets as easy as fish in a barrel. More than a retelling of military movements, Coan’s engrossing narratives focus on the sheer sacrifice and misery of one Marine’s experience in Vietnam. Through his eyes, we experience the abysmal conditions the Marines endured, from monsoon rainstorms to the constant threat of impending attack. Climatic moments in history are captured through the rare, personal perspective of one particularly astute and observant participant.

In this War memoir, Eigen gives voice to his fellow veteran’s experiences of the Vietnam War that culminated in September of 1967 in the brutal battle (Siege) of Con Thien. This defining engagement marked the beginning of the TET offensive and battle of Khe Sanh. He fought with the famous Marine Infantry Battalions 3/26 and 2/9 of the Third Division. Through letters written home, blended with published, attributed media and real war experiences A Hellish Place of Angels provides an in-depth and riveting insight into war and documents a spiritual Journey that took a 13+ month tour of combat experience and more than a half century of living to begin to understand.

Eighteen-year-old Daryl J. Eigen joined the US Marines to become a man. He quickly discovered he was just another boy on the ground as he fought in the Vietnam War with the Marine Corps 3/26 and 2/9 infantry battalions in the Third Marine Division. In this memoir, Eigen gives voice to his and his fellow veterans experiences of the Vietnam War that culminated in September of 1967 in the brutal battle of Con Thien. Through letters written home, blended with published media and real experiences, A Hellish Place of Angels provides an in-depth and riveting insight into war and documents a spiritual journey that took one tour of duty to experience and forty-five years to understand. Praise for A Hellish Place of Angels The author employed a unique approach in this riveting memoir, sharing his personal letters home to his family, then comparing what he wrote in those letters home with the horrors of combat that he recalled experiencing, as well as articles published in various publications describing those battles. This brutally honest and realistic portrayal of combat Marines in Vietnam should be required reading in every academic institutions American history class. James P. Coan, author of Con Thien: The Hill of Angels Dr. Daryl Eigens life really is a true storythe story of a young American who enlisted in the Marines and paid a heavy price in body, mind, and spirit for his intelligence, courage, and convictions. Mark Brady, PhD, author of The Wisdom of Listening

Company A, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division, known as Alpha 1/1, fought in Vietnam. Their story takes you from January 1967 to the siege at Con Thien, to Quang Tri, to the street and building-to-building fighting in the battle of Hue City at the start of the Tet offensive, to helping break the siege at Khe Sanh in April 1968. It encompasses the mayhem, the chaos, the death and destruction, and, yes, even the humor that comes with war, as seen through the eyes of the Marines in this division and told in their words. They were fighting their own war, a war that was directly in front of them, trying to keep their buddies and themselves alive. As renowned author Stephen E. Ambrose said, his mentors taught him to let his characters speak for themselves. I agree wholeheartedly. After all, they were the ones who were there.

Previously published in 2007 by AuthorHouse under the title: Arc Light: A Marine's journey through South Vietnam.

A great white angel spreading her wings across the Moreno Valley: this is how one visitor described the memorial standing atop a windswept prominence in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Taos, New Mexico. A de-facto national Vietnam veterans memorial, built by one family more than a decade before the Wall in Washington, DC, and without aid or recognition from the US government, the chapel at Angel Fire is a testament to one young American’s sacrifice—but also to the profound determination of his family to find meaning in their loss. In The Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Angel Fire, Steven Trout tells the story of Marine Lieutenant David Westphall, who was killed near Con Thien on May 22, 1968, and of the Westphall family’s subsequent struggle to create and maintain a one-of-a-kind memorial chapel dedicated to the memory of all Americans lost in the Vietnam War and to the cause of world peace. Focused primarily on a life lost amid our nation’s most controversial conflict and on the Westphalls’ desperate battle to keep their chapel open between 1971 and 1982, the book’s brisk and moving narrative traces the memorial’s evolution from a personal act of family remembrance to its emergence as an iconic pilgrimage destination for thousands of Vietnam veterans. Documenting the chapel’s shifting messages over time, which include a momentary (and controversial) recognition of the dead on both sides of the war, The Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Angel Fire spotlights one American soldier’s tragic story and the monument to hope and peace that it inspired.