Comments about Where’s Charlie?
In the Introduction to Where’s Charlie?, Tim Soyars tells us he hopes “this book might inspire some young person to experience the military to its fullest as I did.” Tim’s sights may have been set too low, for not only is this book truly inspirational to potential military recruits, but also it inspires men and women of all ages. It is a story of honor, courage, and love, and it helps us all increase our understanding and appreciation of those who served during the Vietnam War.
As a United States History Professor, I applaud Tim Soyars for his important addition to the literature on the Vietnam War. In Where’s Charlie?, Tim provides us with a personal and professional perspective on his service during the war. I always encourage my students to see history through the eyes of the people who participate in it. This book enables us all to gain a greater understanding of that trying period of our history. Tim’s inclusion of excerpts from letters exchanged with his bride Jeanie adds a special feature to this memoir, and it reminds us of the sacrifice and love taking place both in Vietnam and at home. Thanks to both for allowing a larger audience to share in their story.
Where’s Charlie? is an extraordinary history of one man – and one woman – during one year of the Vietnam War. This book contains a special richness: the organization is superb; the story is engaging and informative; the excerpts from letters between author Tim Soyars and his wife Jeanie are touching; the photos illustrate the people and places; the summary Operational Reports from Charlie Company add texture; the glossary defines unusual terms; and, lastly, don’t miss Tim’s brief “Reflections on Leadership.” I highly recommend this book – it is inspirational and informative on many levels.
Kenneth G. Alfers, Ph.D.
Professor of History
Mountain View College
What They Took With Them: A Review of Where’s Charlie? by Tim Soyars
And Jeanie Soyars wrote: “You know what means even more to me is that look of love and pride on your face when we’re in a public place, the praise you bestow when I ‘ve done something wisely or good, the value you put on my ideas, your wonderful tolerance, your appreciation when I strive to please you, your faith in my love and your faithfulness, and most of all the mutual joy we share in knowing our great love for each other.” November 10, 1967
At the same time, Lieutenant Tim Soyars wrote: “We had an awards ceremony here at Uplift yesterday . . . I received a Bronze Star for valor and the Air Medal . . . The Air Medal is awarded for flying twenty combat missions. The Sergeant Major told me I flew more than ninety combat missions, but I wasn’t counting . . . The Bronze Star is for the raid on the village of Lo Dieu . . . . I long to be near you, to look at you, to touch you, to talk to you . . . . Until then, I’ll see you in my dreams.” November 12, 1967
Both exchanges were written during the writhing throes of the Vietnam conflict—what the United States Congress never came to characterize as a “war.” The first reflects the deeply committed and loving relationship of a spouse to the war, the second, the metaphors of combat, couched in the security of the first. Both appear appropriately in the appendix as a frame to Where’s Charlie?, the story of that combat as experienced in the one-year service of an soldier, Second Lieutenant Tim Soyars.
The son of a military-based firefighter and a “housewife” mother of three, Tim Soyars, the youngest of the children, grew up in Norfolk, Virginia. In his family background were generations of forefathers who had stepped up to military service in “answering the call” of their country. In his play, the youngster Tim had been preparing for his own response to serve which came in 1965 when he enlisted in the United States Army at the very moment President Lyndon Johnson had determined to escalate the combat to defeat the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese and to preserve the freedom and independence of the democratic South Vietnam.
Where’s Charlie? is a story decades in the preparation during which time has clearly filtered the battle experiences of a deeply patriotic and dedicated young American soldier. The narrative itself chronicles Soyars’ life leading up to his enlistment in the Army, his courtship and early marriage, his one-year tour of duty in Vietnam from March 1967, and the continuation of his military service stateside until the resignation of his commission in September 1969.
Where’s Charlie? is not only the name of the book but also the name of his combat unit, Charlie Company, during Soyars’ tour in Vietnam. Refreshingly, the text does not reflect the stains of an apology for another misbegotten American adventure. Readers will find no misgivings at the level of “boots on the ground” regarding the mission of the war or the means of prosecuting it. Rather, Where’s Charlie? is the unabashed celebration of the thousands of men who dedicated themselves—bodies and souls—to the ideals the United States government projected at the time about the incursion. More pointedly, Where’s Charlie? is the story of the loyalty and commitment of the members of Charlie Company to their fellow soldiers in the execution of their objectives in the service of those ideals.
At the same time, Where’s Charlie? is not a polemic on the ongoing Vietnam debate. Soyars’ chronicle refrains from attacking the antiwar movement which at times vilified American combatants in the Vietnam conflict. Fortunately for him, Soyars returned to the support and love of his bride and the appreciation of his family which nurtured and sustained him in the sometimes uncomfortable readjustment to service back home and his reintegration into civilian life.
Where’s Charlie? is a strikingly and somewhat disarmingly easy read. Soyars’ style is clear, and the text glides smoothly from sentence to sentence, unencumbered by syntactical complexities typical, perhaps, of a more reflective narrative. There is little secondary development—explanations of explanation—in the narration, a factor belied by the poignant imagery that peppers the narrative occasionally, suggesting the deep traumas of violence and conflagration and the constant potential for injury and death at every turn in a battle zone. Soyars recounts his argument with a helicopter pilot, to whom he denied permission to unload a palette of American bodies stacked four feet high like cordwood on the floor of the aircraft. At another point, while on night ambush, in close proximity to a squad of reported North Vietnamese regular soldiers, Soyars relates aiming his AR15 at the profile of a moving head in the shadows of brush just off the trail, pulling the trigger, recalling the immediate collapse of the figure, and discovering the body of the slain enemy the next morning. The few combat images that Soyars does share underscore the reality of this conflict and all battle, but Soyars’ account is grounded not in the scores of victory, but rather in his sense of duty and efforts to fulfill it, always in the context of the needs of his fellow soldiers.
Tim Soyars survived his Vietnam experiences and learned from them. He notes, “People sometimes asked me if I felt I’d wasted my time by serving in the army and spending a year in Vietnam. I quickly replied, ‘Absolutely not.’ I’m proud of my service, and it was my duty then as it had been the duty of my forefathers.” What readers will take away from this chronicle is a sense of what military service can mean to a person’s life. Soyars learned leadership skills that came to serve him in the decades that followed. “My military training provided a great foundation for my future,” says Soyars. The wisdom and insight from those experiences Soyars catalogs in his analysis of leadership:
“Leadership is:
• Knowing the team and how to make it work together effectively,
• Inspiring in unpretentious and non-authoritarian ways,
• Planning and leading the mission, but focusing on the strategic horizon,
• Providing clear roles and expectations,
• Mentoring with a focus on the individual and playing to their strengths,
• Doing the right thing and always considering the feelings of others and the consequences of your actions,
• Leading by example, and
• Making yourself dispensable, not indispensable.”
What the young Lieutenant Soyars took with him into the military—a sense of commitment, respect for his nation, and the love of his wife and family—sustained him in his service on the field of battle that molded him into the leader he would become afterwards in the business and corporate world, and later in higher education administration.
Geoffrey Grimes, PhD
Professor of English
Mountain View College
This is a book I almost wrote, and I’m glad that Tim Soyars was the veteran who wrote “his” story. Because this is true history. A personal story of the life of a young soldier in an unpopular war; the story of a young lieutenant charged with the awesome responsibility of leading other young men into the most challenging time of their lives.
The early part of the story seemed like I had written it or that Tim had been spying on my early military career. It was like I was reading the story of my early military career. I enlisted in the fall of 1965, eventually went through OCS, and after a short state-side assignment, moved on to Vietnam and to Charlie Company, Second/Fifth Cav, First Cavalry Division.
I knew Tim only slightly in Vietnam, and forty years later I discovered that we only lived a few miles apart. My time with Charlie Company began just after Tim moved to the S4 office. I was a young lieutenant who took command of the third platoon, shortly after Tim relinquished his command of the second platoon.
I was excited to read the stories of men I knew personally. Some of them are still with us, and some have passed on, but they are all brothers-in-arms who will never be forgotten.
This book is not a compilation of war stories although it is a story of war. It’s a story of the exciting days, the tragic days, the humorous days, and the downright boring days that soldiers experience in war.
The title, Where’s Charlie?, could have a double meaning to those of us who were there. It was a question we asked almost daily. Where’s Charlie? could have meant the elusive enemy we sought to find. But it also was a question we often asked wondering Where’s Charlie? Company because of the many major moves we would make as a matter of daily routine in our search for the enemy.
I agree with Tim on another point: Vietnam was a war despite what the politicians and think-tankers want to call it. It certainly wasn’t a police action or a skirmish—it was war in its truest sense. Men lived, men died, and men were maimed for life, some physically and some mentally. It was war.
The inclusion of the correspondence between Tim and Jeanie adds a personal view of life in the mid to late sixties while the addition of the monthly summaries of the battalion logs give the story a broader view concerning the activities of the unit and how Charlie Company fit in.
I think this is a good book for those of us who were there and for those who weren’t. For those who weren’t there, it gives a different perspective of what the war was about and how the soldiers who were there lived their daily lives.
Jim Stanford
Former third platoon leader
In Charlie Company, Second/Fifth, First Cav, Vietnam 1967-68
Where’s Charlie? is a compelling testimonial to the experiences of war for an American soldier who not only survived but thrived on his faith in his country, his dedication to the mission and his men, and the love of his wife and family.
At a time in American history when it has long sense been fashionable to question the integrity of our country and the policies that throw many of our best and brightest into harm’s way, Where’s Charlie? is a refreshing reaffirmation of what American novelist William Faulkner once referred to as the “old verities and truths of the heart, lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed—love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice.” These are the values that many young men carry into military service; they are not always those with which they retire from the service. Not the case, however, for Vietnam War veteran Tim Soyars who looks back at his hitch in the military and a year of combat in Southeast Asia to reflect on the relationships he formed, the skills he honed, and the benefits he received from his experiences.
Where’s Charlie? will leave most readers with a deep sense of pride and respect for our American military service men and women. Winner of a Bronze Star for valor and the Air Medal for combat missions, former Lieutenant Tim Soyars reflects on the positive experiences he received during his tour of duty in Vietnam and what the war experiences earned for him in the years to come.
Geoffrey Grimes, PhD
Professor of English
Mountain View College