Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Killing Zone: My Life in the Vietnam War
    The Killing Zone: My Life in the Vietnam War
    The Killing Zone: My Life in the Vietnam War
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Killing Zone: My Life in the Vietnam War

    Written by Frederick Downs

    Narrated by Barry Press

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Among the best books ever written about men in combat, The Killing Zone tells the story of the platoon of Delta One-six, capturing what it meant to face lethal danger, to follow orders, and to search for the conviction and then the hope that this war was worth the sacrifice. The book includes a new chapter on what happened to the platoon members when they came home.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMar 14, 2017
    ISBN9781515988786
    The Killing Zone: My Life in the Vietnam War

    Related to The Killing Zone

    Related audiobooks

    Wars & Military For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Rendezvous In Nha Trang

      Dec 21, 2021

      Rendezvous In Nha Trang
      6 min read

    • Article

      Vietnam My Son, The Soldier

      Sep 1, 2021

      Vietnam My Son, The Soldier
      9 min read

    • Article

      Down But Not Out

      Dec 4, 2018

      Down But Not Out
      12 min read

    • Article

      “You’re Just The Guy We’re Looking For”

      Feb 20, 2024

      AS ALLAN W. OSTAR approaches his 100th birthday, he can look back with pride on a career as an academic administrator and education consultant. For many years, Allan was president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. But, a

      4 min read

    • Article

      Exit Plans

      Mar 15, 2024

      Exit Plans
      7 min read

    • Article

      Exit Plans

      Mar 15, 2024

      Exit Plans
      7 min read

    • Article

      As The Crow Flies

      Oct 2, 2018

      As The Crow Flies
      7 min read

    • Article

      I, Spy

      Aug 7, 2018

      Many things happened to me for the first time on a night in April 1944. I rode in a Black Maria; I jumped from a bomber with a tangled parachute; and I began my mission in wartime France as a British secret agent. We drove in the Black Maria from Int

      17 min read

    • Article

      My Six-month Furlough

      Aug 31, 2021

      My Six-month Furlough
      13 min read

    • Article

      My Six-month Furlough

      Aug 31, 2021

      My Six-month Furlough
      13 min read

    • Article

      The Worst Thing You Can Do Is Nothing

      Jan 10, 2023

      Stanislav did not want to join the army. It was his mother who said he must. Stanislav’s father didn’t argue. Father had once been brave enough to fly a fighter plane in World War II, but that had been a long time ago. One glorious act of bravery in

      11 min read

    • Article

      Graham Stevenson Trooper

      Aug 9, 2018

      “A SHOT HIT THE DRIVING SPROCKET, AND IF I HAD BEEN A BIT CLOSER IT WOULD HAVE TAKEN MY LEGS OFF” Graham Stevenson lied about his age to join the British Army. A native of Walsall, he joined the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry in Egypt and first served in

      8 min read

    • Article

      Need Some Help?

      Oct 2, 2018

      Some old memories are rather difficult to recall, while a few can be etched within our minds to such a degree that after 50 years they bring tears to our eyes and make us shake. Your article in the August issue (“Catkillers Over Con Thien,” by Paul X

      1 min read

    • Article

      Former Agent Says, 'Border Patrol Does Good Work ... But There's Tension There'

      Feb 6, 2018

      In The Line Becomes a River, Francisco Cantú looks back on his time as a Border Patrol agent. He says, in his experience, "No matter what obstacle we put at the border, it's going to be subverted."

      3 min read

    • Article

      Lessons Of Bosnian War And Peace

      Nov 26, 2020

      TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO last month the Dayton Peace Accords were signed in Paris, ending the bitter Bosnian war. The general framework of the agreement was brokered during three weeks of negotiations at Wright-Patterson airbase in Ohio, thanks to a mix

      11 min read

    • Article

      Let a Student in Your Life …

      Aug 14, 2022

      Let a Student in Your Life …
      9 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Killing Zone

    4.5/5

    115 ratings9 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Hard to put down. Inf.sgt 1st 31st inf thank you.
    • 5/5
      Well written and brilliantly narrated, this story brings all the elements of the Vietnam war into focus, it was hell for both sides.
    • 5/5
      Well written, well read! First person account from a combat leader in Vietnam
    • 5/5
      Good book and worth the listen. Some really nail biting moments.
    • 5/5
      WOW !
      I've always been interested in the Vietnam war, I guess because I had 3 uncales and a close friend of the family that went over there.
      And have meet others later in life that where over there, but no one really talked about, so I'm thankful that Mr downs shared his story, I now have a much more understanding of there experience over there.
      P.s
      Thank you for your service
    • 5/5
      An excellent, gritty, non-glamourous book about the Vietnam war. Well worth listening to.
    • 1/5
      It said the F word and S word in the first 2 minutes

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      the killing zone a war our granparents fought in a war that changed life for all americans if you are going to be readin this i gurantee you will fell alarmed. I think the moral of this story is to help others no matter what. One reason of that is when all the soldiers that would get shot or wounded all the others would need to help him survive.
    • 5/5
      Most authentic view of war from the ground. If Bob Mason's Chickenhawk was the best book about Vietnam from a chopper pilot's seat, then Fred Downs' memoir is one of the best from the grunts' point of view. Downs' story starts quietly and build slowly, in his dry, almost laconic style, to an abrupt and horrifying conclusion. The sheer awfulness and horror of life in the jungle, humpin' the boonies, and taking nameless ridges in fierce firefights at such awful costs (and then giving them back to the enemy) becomes slowly evident in Fred Downs' matter-of-fact descriptions. One scene in particular sticks in my mind - how Downs and his men dig up a fresh grave looking for a possible weapons cache. They find nothing but a rotting corpse, so simply throw the shovels at a couple of wailing Vietnamese women to finish the job of re-burying the body. On the way out of the graveyard, they pull some onions to "spice up their C rations." Downs says he thought briefly about how hardened he had become, but the thought left him quickly. Wounded only slightly three times, earning three purple hearts, Downs begins to think he's got a charmed life. But the fourth ribbon is not so easily earned, as, not quite halfway through his tour, Downs triggers a bouncing betty land mine and this time loses an arm and is horrifically wounded. His war is suddenly over, and ends this, his first Vietnam story. Perhaps almost as moving as the original story is the new Afterword Downs penned for the 2006 edition of The Killing Zone (originally published in 1978). His stories of the fates of his men and comrades - of lives tragically cut short or forever changed by crippling and disfiguring wounds - are enough to make you weep. I am not surprised that this book has stayed in print continuously for nearly 30 years and is now on the reading list at West Point. It needs to be read. There are lessons to be learned in its pages.