"Whenever something happens to me today and I worry about what will happen, I just remember a Sunday afternoon on a Fire Base in Vietnam." (Memoir, page 3)

Edwin Mark Trawczynski

Edwin Trawczynski leaning against a jeep, Charlie Aid Station, Vietnam [3/1969] War: Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Branch: Army Unit: Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division; 13th Field Hospital Service Location: Hue, Vietnam; Boc Hoa, Vietnam; A Shau Valley, Vietnam; Fire Base Roy, Vietnam; Camp Ra, Vietnam; Bien Hoa, Vietnam; Camp Eagle, Vietnam; Fire Base Rifle, Vietnam; Fort Sam Houston, Texas; Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; Fort Belvoir, Virginia Rank: Specialist Five

Arriving in Vietnam in late May 1969, Army medic Edwin Mark “Butch” Trawczynski was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. Just a month earlier, the 101st had been involved in the infamous Battle of Hamburger Hill, and was now stationed in the A Shau Valley, nicknamed the Valley of Death. As he describes in his short memoir, he was forced to adjust quickly to the rigors of being a combat medic. His extensive photographic documentation of his time in the service illustrates daily scenes of life in Vietnam, while his correspondence with his family narrates his experience from his second day in country until a month before his departure.