Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Inside the Crosshairs Snipers in Vietnam by Michael Lee Lanning INSIDE THE CROSSHAIRS SNIPERS IN VIETNAM PDF. Inside the Crosshairs Snipers In Vietnam by Michael Lee Lanning on Amazon. com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Inside the Crosshairs has 95 ratings and 3 reviews. Stephen said: A decent book, discuss snipers throughout history,although mostly focuses on Vietnam. Inside the Crosshairs: Snipers in Vietnam, by Michael Lee Lanning, Ballantine Publishing Group, New York, , $ There have been sharpshooters and. Author: Viran Bralrajas Country: Kosovo Language: English (Spanish) Genre: Automotive Published (Last): 2 March 2018 Pages: 235 PDF File Size: 14.46 Mb ePub File Size: 3.68 Mb ISBN: 504-5-43441-712-8 Downloads: 70852 Price: Free* [ *Free Regsitration Required ] Uploader: Shataxe. I salute you sir. Water, some C rations, weapons-cleaning gear, and a lightweight camouflage poncho liner rounded out my equipment load. While everyone else on board strained to find the antagonist, who was firing from the shoreline over meters away, Sergeant Waldron took up his sniper rifle and picked off the Vietcong out of the top of a coconut tree with one shot this from a moving platform. Join Kobo & start eReading today. In the meantime, a few expert Army riflemen secured sniper weapons left over from the Korean War and rifles used by marksmanship competition teams to unofficially begin adapting to the unique war zone. To the people who make these decisions: And we all owe our freedom and teh of life to you, and men like you, who have given everything to preserve it. The Fleet at Flood Tide. McNelly and Paul H. I was honored to witness first hand the dedication and bravery of so many magnificent young men. Now I understand how Alaska was such a cakewalk for you. I enjoyed watching the show. Thank you for adding your comments to viehnam page and stating what happened after the incident in the Mekong Delta. While taking advantage of individual marksmanship skills was clearly not new to warfare, the way the U. Ed Eaton, from a British citizen. Would you like us to take another look at this review? Inside the Crosshairs: Snipers in Vietnam by Michael Lee Lanning. Inside the Crosshairs Snipers in Vietnam by Col. Marine Sergeant Charles Mawhinney sniers probables and confirmed kills—the equivalent of three NVA companies. This needs to be fixed ASAP! Lanning believes that a pilot who shot down enough enemy planes to become an ace would be called a hero by the public, but a sniper who killed five enemy soldiers might be called a murderer—a thought-provoking point. If someone even comes close to what you did, or only does a portion of it, I would think it appropriate for CMOH consideration. Backed by hard information and firsthand accounts, the author demonstrates how the skills these one-shot killers honed in the jungles of Vietnam provided an indelible legacy that helped save American lives in Grenada, the Gulf War, and Somalia and continues to this day with American troops in Bosnia. As for the BN. Open Preview See a Problem? Inside the Crosshairs: Snipers in Vietnam – Michael Lee Lanning – Google Books. Me and one Marine from Connecticut and a surfer from California were the only ones not from the South or the western mountain states. Ed, I commend you on your heroism. To ask other readers questions about Inside the Crosshairs inisde, please sign up. Michael Lee Lanning Limited preview – Gage rated it liked it Aug 03, I was awestruck by the bravery, character and valor that you demonstrated at that young age. The Ed Eaton sniper episode is one incredible account of heroism. If we do not elevate heros like yourself, how can we ever expect future generations to know what is possible. We are experiencing technical difficulties. Ady rated it it was ok Jun 01, All in the course of Great Memories. But at war again, both services recognized the need to renew sniper training. During his assignment to Vietnam, he served as both an infantry platoon leader and a company commander in the th Infantry… More about Col. Truly a remarkable story. Debbie rated it it was amazing Jul 17, We appreciate your feedback. Paperbackpages. Vietnam Studies – U. To Hanoi ibside Back. Yes, the two World Wars and the Korean War were horrific conflicts with many acts of heroism, but to suggest that the men who fought in Vietnam, snipwrs are fighting now, have done less is highly insulting at best! The Battle Of Ap Bac. We’ll publish them on our site once we’ve reviewed them. Books by Michael Lee Lanning. The prose is seldom the sort of anecdotal stuff some are looking for, but those who seek a complete sober look at a methods and the statistical records left by this effort will be rewarded Because Lanning ln certainly done the work to find all the documents. Now noted military historian Michael Lee Lanning shows how U. I did not enjoy it. We never planned on more than a few shots on each mission with the Remington, but I carried fifty of the 7. Top 10 Snipers in History. “It was night and low visibility, but I saw a guy with an AK-47 lit up by the porch light in a doorway about 400 meters away. I watched him through the sights. He looked like just another Iraqi. I hit him low in the stomach and dropped him.” – Specialist James Wilks, 25, from Fort Worth, Texas. Concealment is key to becoming a great sniper—highly trained marksmen who can shoot accurately from incredible distances with specialized training in high-precision rifles. In addition, they are trained in camouflage, fieldcraft, infiltration, reconnaissance, and observation, making them perhaps the most feared military presence in a war. Below is my list of top ten snipers in history and some of the greatest shots ever fired. 10 Thomas Plunkett died in 1851. Plunkett was an Irish soldier in the British 95th Rifles. What makes him one of the greats is that he shot a very impressive French general, Auguste- Marie-François Colbert. During the battle at Cacabelos during Monroe’s retreat in 1809, Plunkett, using a Baker Rifle, shot the French general at a range of about 600 meters. Giving the incredible inaccuracy of rifles in the early 19th century, this was either a very impressive feat or one hell of a fluke. Well, Plunkett, not wanting his army buddies to think he was a bit lucky, decided to take the shot again before returning to his line. So, he reloaded his gun and aimed once again, this time at the trumpet major who had come to the general’s aid. When this shot also hit its intended target, proving that Plunkett is just one badass marksman, he looked back to his line to see the impressed faces of the others in the 95th Rifles. Just for comparison, the British soldiers were all armed with “Brown Bess muskets” and trained to shoot into a body of men at 50 meters. Plunkett did 12 times that distance. Twice! Read about one of history’s greatest snipers! Buy American Sniper: Memorial Edition at Amazon.com! 9 Charles “Chuck” Mawhinney 1949- 103 Confirmed Kills. Mawhinney was an avid hunter as a kid and joined the Marines in 1967. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps during Vietnam and holds the record for the number of confirmed kills for Marine snipers, bypassing that of legendary Marine sniper Carlos Hathcock. In just 16 months, he killed 103 enemies, and another 216 kills were listed as probable by the military, only because it was too risky at the time to search the bodies for documents. When he left the Marines, he told no one his role during the conflict, and only a few fellow Marines knew of his assignments. It was nearly 20 years before somebody wrote a book detailing his amazing skills as a sniper. Mawhinney came out of anonymity because of this and became a lecturer in sniper schools. He was once quoted as saying, “It was the ultimate hunting trip: a man hunting another man who was hunting me. Don’t talk to me about hunting lions or elephants; they don’t fight back with rifles and scopes. I just loved it. I ate it up.” A routinely deadly shot from distances between 300 – 800 yards, Mawhinney had confirmed kills of over 1000 yards, making him one of the greatest snipers of the Vietnam war. 8 Chris Kyle April 8, 1974 – February 2, 2013. 150 Confirmed Kills. A Navy SEAL sniper born in Texas, Chris Kyle is probably the best-known person on this list because of his 2012 autobiography, American Sniper and the subsequent 2015 film of the same title directed by Clint Eastwood in which Kyle was played by Bradley Cooper, and because of the tragic circumstances of his death. The exact number of confirmed kills he made in Iraq has been debated, but it stands somewhere around 150; he estimates having made another 100 unconfirmed kills. He took the title for highest number of kills by an American sniper from Waldron (see below). He was awarded the Silver Star, four Bronze Stars with “V” devices, a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, and many unit and personal awards. Like Hathcock, the enemy had a nickname for Kyle. They called him “Al-Shaitan Ramadi,” which means “The Devil of Ramadi.” They placed a bounty on his head that kept increasing until it reached $80,000. Among the U.S. military, including the Marines he was tasked with protecting, he became known simply as “The Legend.” The nickname started among Kyle’s fellow SEALs after he took a sabbatical to train snipers in Fallujah and famously took a 2,100-yard shot that killed an insurgent sniper aiming at U.S. military personnel outside Sadr City in 2008. Kyle said it was “a straight-up luck shot.” After four tours of duty in Iraq, he’d been shot twice and survived six separate IED attacks. He retired from the military in 2009. In 2013, Kyle was tragically murdered along with his friend, Chad Littlefield, at the Rough Creek Lodge shooting range near Chalk Mountain, Texas. The man who killed them, Eddie Ray Routh, was a U.S. Marine with PTSD. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murders. 7 Rob Furlong 1976- A former corporal of the Canadian Forces, Furlong holds the record for the longest confirmed sniper kill in history at 1.51 miles or 2,430 meters. That’s the length of about 26 football fields. This amazing feat occurred in 2002 when he was involved in Operation Anaconda. His Sniper Team consisted of 2 Corporals and 3 Master Corporals. When a three-man Al-Qaeda weapons team moved into a mountainside position, he aimed. Furlong was armed with a .50-caliber McMillan Brothers Tac-50 Rifle and loaded with A-MAX very low drag bullets. He fired and missed. His second shot hit the enemy’s knapsack on his back. He had already fired his third shot by the time the second hit, but now the enemy knew he was under attack. The airtime for each bullet was about 3 seconds due to the immense distance, enough time for an enemy to take cover. However, the dumbfounded militant realised what was happening just in time to take the third shot in the chest. 6 Vasily Zaytsev March 23, 1915 – December 15, 1991. 242 Confirmed Kills. Zaytsev is also a well-known sniper, thanks to the movie Enemy At The Gates . It is a great film, and I wish I could say it was all true. However, the truth only goes as far as the battle of Stalingrad. There was no Nazi Counter-Sniper Specialist in real life. Well, not to the extent laid out like in the film. Here’s the truth. Zaytsev was born in Yeleninskoye and grew up in the Ural Mountains. His surname means “hare.” Before Stalingrad, he served as a clerk in the Soviet Navy. But after reading about the conflict in the city, he volunteered for the front line. He served in the 1047th Rifle Regiment. Zaytsev ran a sniper school in the Metiz factory. The cadets he trained were called Zaichata, meaning “Leverets” (Baby Hares). This was the start of the sniper movement in the 62nd army. It is estimated that the snipers he trained killed more than 3,000 enemy soldiers. Zaytsev himself made 242 confirmed kills between October 1942 and January 1943, but the real number is probably closer to 500. I know I said there was no counter-sniper, but there was Erwin Kónig. He was alleged to be a highly skilled Wehrmacht sniper. Zaytsev claimed in his memoirs that the duel took place over a period of three days in the ruins of Stalingrad. Details of what actually happened are sketchy, but by the end of the three-day period, Zaytsev had killed the sniper and claimed his scope to be his most prized trophy. For him to make this his most prized trophy means that this person he killed must have been almost as good as Zaytsev himself. 5 Lyudmila Pavlichenko July 12, 1916 – October 10, 1974. 309 Confirmed Kills. In June 1941, Pavlichenko was 24, and Nazi Germany was invading the Soviet Union. She was among the first volunteers and asked to join the infantry. She was assigned to the Red Army’s 25th Infantry Division. From there, she became one of 2,000 female snipers in the Soviet forces. Her first two kills were made near Belyayevka using a Mosin-Nagant bolt action rifle with a P.E. 4-power scope. The first action she saw was during the conflict in Odessa. She was there for two and a half months and notched 187 kills. When they were forced to relocate, she spent the next eight months fighting in Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula. There she recorded 257 kills, and for this feat, she was cited by the Southern Army Council. Pavlichenko’s total confirmed kills during WWII was 309—36 of those were enemy snipers. 4 Corporal Francis Pegahmagabow March 9, 1891 – August 5, 1952. 378 Confirmed kills 300+ Captures. Three times awarded amilitary medal and twice seriously wounded, Pegahmagabow was an expert marksman and scout, credited with 378 German kills and capturing 300+ more. He was an Ojibwa warrior with the Canadians in battles like those at Mount Sorrel. As if killing nearly 400 Germans wasn’t enough, he was also awarded medals for running messages through very heavy enemy fire, for directing a crucial relief efforts when his commanding officer was incapacitated, and for running through enemy fire to get more ammo when his unit was running low. Though a hero among his fellow soldiers, he was virtually forgotten once he returned home to Canada. Regardless, he was one of the most effective snipers of World War I. 3 Adelbert F. Waldron March 14, 1933 – October 18, 1995. 109 confirmed kills. Waldron once held the record for the highest number of confirmed kills for any American sniper in history—until Chris Kyle (see above). However, it is not just his impressive kill record that makes him one of the best, but also his incredible accuracy. This excerpt from Inside the Crosshairs: Snipers in Vietnam by Col. Michael Lee Lanning describes just what I’m talking about: “One afternoon, he was riding along the Mekong River on a Tango boat when an enemy sniper on shore pecked away at the boat. While everyone else on board strained to find the antagonist, who was firing from the shoreline over 900 meters away, Sergeant Waldron took up his sniper rifle and picked off the Vietcong out of the top of a coconut tree with one shot (this from a moving platform). Such was the capability of our best sniper.” Nuff Said. If there were a scale of difficulty for shots like these, it would be next to impossible to beat. Well, let’s try to do that anyway. 2 Carlos Norman Hathcock II May 20, 1942 – February 23, 1999. Nicknamed “Lông Trung du Kich” or “White Feather” 93 Confirmed kills. Hathcock has one of the most impressive mission records of any sniper in the Marine corps. Let’s forget about the dozens of shooting championships he won. During the Vietnam war, he amassed 93 confirmed kills. The Vietnam army put a $30,000 bounty on his life for killing so many of their men. Rewards put on U.S. snipers by the NVA (North Vietnamese Army) typically amounted to … say $8. It was Hathcock who fired the most famous shot in sniper history. He fired a round over a very long distance, which went through the scope of an enemy sniper, hit him in the eye, and killed him. Hathcock and Roland Burke, his spotter, were stalking the enemy sniper (which had already killed several Marines), which they believed was sent to kill him specifically. When Hathcock saw a flash of light reflecting off the enemy’s scope, he fired at it in a split second, pulling off one of the most precise shots in history. Hathcock reasoned that the only way this was possible would have been if both snipers were aiming at each other’s scopes simultaneously, and he fired first. However, although the distance was never confirmed, Hathcock knew that it would have been easy for both snipers to kill each other because of the flight time. The white feather was synonymous with Hathcock (he kept one in his hat), and he removed it only once for a mission. Keep in mind that he volunteered for this mission, but he had to crawl over 1500 yards of enemy territory to shoot an NVA commanding general. Information wasn’t sent until he was en route. (He volunteered for a mission he knew nothing about.) It took 4 days and 3 nights without sleep of inch-by-inch crawling. One enemy soldier almost stepped on him as he laid camouflaged in a meadow. At another point, he was nearly bitten by a viper, but he didn’t flinch. He finally got into position and waited for the general. When he arrived, Hathcock was ready. He fired one round and hit the general through the chest, killing him. The soldiers started a search for the sniper, and Hathcock had to crawl back to avoid detection. They never caught him—what nerves of steel. 1 Simo Häyhä December 17, 1905 – April 1, 2002. Nicknamed “The White Death” 705 confirmed kills (505 with a rifle, 200 with a submachine gun) Häyhä was a Finnish soldier who, using an iron-sighted bolt action rifle, amassed the highest recorded confirmed kills as a sniper in any war— ever!! Häyhä was born in the municipality of Rautjärvi near the present-day border of Finland and Russia and started his military service in 1925. His duties as a sniper began during the “winter war” (1939-1940) between Russia and Finland. During the conflict, Häyhä endured freezing temperatures up to -40 degrees Celsius. In less than 100 days, he was credited with 505 confirmed kills, 542 if including unconfirmed kills. However, the unofficial frontline figures from the battlefield places the number of sniper kills at over 800. Besides his sniper kills, he was also credited with 200 from a Suomi KP/31 Submachine gun, topping off his total confirmed kills at 705. How Häyhä did all this was amazing. He was basically on his own all day, in the snow, shooting Russians, for three months straight. Of course, when the Russians caught wind that many soldiers were being killed, they thought, “well, this is war, there’s bound to be casualties.” But when the generals were told that it was one man with a rifle, they decided to take a bit of action. First, they sent in a counter-sniper. When his body was returned, they decided to send in a team of counter-snipers. When they didn’t come back at all, they sent in a whole goddamn battalion. They took casualties and couldn’t find him. Eventually, they ordered an artillery strike, but to no avail. You see, Häyhä was clever, and this was his neck of the woods. He dressed completely in white camouflage. He used a smaller rifle to suit his smaller frame (being only 5’3″) and increase his accuracy. He used an iron sight to present the smallest possible target (a scoped sight would require the sniper to raise his head for sighting). He compacted the snow in front of the barrel so as not to disturb it when he shot, thus revealing his position. He also kept snow in his mouth, so his breath did not condense and reveal where he was. Eventually, however, he was shot in the jaw by a stray bullet during combat on March 6, 1940. He was picked up by his own soldiers, who said half his head was missing. However, he didn’t die and regained consciousness on the 13th, the day peace was declared. Once again, total kills—505 sniper + 200 submachine = 705 total Confirmed Kills—all in less than 100 days. Inside the Crosshairs. At the start of the war in Vietnam, the United States had no snipers; by the end of the war, Marine and army precision marksmen had killed more than 10,000 NVA and VC soldiers--the equivalent of an entire division--at the cost of under 20,000 bullets, proving that long-range shooters still had a place in the battlefield. Now noted military historian Michael Lee Lanning shows how U.S. snipers in Vietnam--combining modern technology in weapons, ammunition, and telescopes--used the experience and traditions of centuries of expert shooters to perfect their craft. To provide insight into the use of American snipers in Vietnam, Lanning interviewed men with combat trigger time, as well as their instructors, the founders of the Marine and U.S. Army sniper programs, and the generals to whom they reported. Backed by hard information and firsthand accounts, the author demonstrates how the skills these one-shot killers honed in the jungles of Vietnam provided an indelible legacy that helped save American lives in Grenada, the Gulf War, and Somalia and continues to this day with American troops in Bosnia. Michael Lee Lanning retired from the army as a lieutenant colonel after more than twenty years' service. During his assignment to Vietnam, he served as both an infantry platoon leader and a company commander in the 199th Infantry Brigade (Light). He lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Lanning, Michael Lee. Writer. Military service: Served in U.S. Army for more than twenty years; became lieutenant colonel; served in the 199th Infantry Light Brigade in Vietnam. WRITINGS: The Battles of Peace, Ivy Books (New York, NY), 1992. (With Dan Cragg) Inside the VC and the NVA: The Real Story of North Vietnam's Armed Forces, Fawcett Columbine (New York, NY), 1992. Vietnam at the Movies, Fawcett Columbine (New York, NY), 1994. The Military 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Military Leaders of All Time, Carol Publishing Group (Secaucus, NJ), 1996, Citadel Press (New York, NY), 2002. Senseless Secrets: The Failures of U.S. Military Intelligence from George Washington to the Present, Carol Publishing Group (Secaucus, NJ), 1996. The African-American Soldier: From Crispus Attucks to Colin Powell, Carol Publishing Group (Secaucus, NJ), 1997, Citadel Press (New York, NY), 2004. Inside the Crosshairs: Snipers in Vietnam, Ivy Books (New York, NY), 1998. Defenders of Liberty: African Americans in the Revolutionary War, Citadel Press (New York, NY), 2000. The Battle 100: The Stories behind History's Most Influential Battles, Sourcebooks (Naperville, IL), 2003. The Civil War 100: The Stories behind the Most Influential Battles, People, and Events in the War between the States, Sourcebooks (Naperville, IL), 2007. The Only War We Had: A Platoon Leader's Journal of Vietnam, Texas A&M University Press (College Station, TX), 2007. Vietnam, 1969-1970: A Company Commander's Journal, Texas A&M University Press (College Station, TX), 2007. SIDELIGHTS: A former lieutenant colonel in the United States Army, and a veteran of the Vietnam War, Michael Lee Lanning has written a number of books related to war and the military. His primary goal has been to shed light on the true nature of war, rather than to make excuses after the fact for what the military was forced to do as part of their job, keeping the nation safe. In an interview with Bob Fenster for Vietnam, Lanning explained: "Many of the early books about Vietnam were apologetic, or about how the war made the author crazy, or discussed how we veterans needed to heal." He continued: "I did not agree…. I was proud of my service and wanted to tell the story of combat in Vietnam as honestly as I could." Lanning's Inside the VC and the NVA: The Real Story of North Vietnam's Armed Forces looks at the history of war in Vietnam, and the fierce soldiers who fought against the U.S. military. The book emphasizes the differences between the Vietnamese and the American fighting styles, and explains their relative effectiveness. Charles E. Neu in Reviews in American History observed that the "study provides little consolation for those who argue that a different American strategy could have won the war." Vietnam at the Movies offers readers a different look at the Vietnam War, through a comprehensive catalog of films that touch on the period. Covering more than four hundred movies, Lanning provides not only film facts but background information, such as the film's historical perspective and an accounting of the political and social reactions to the war back in the United States. Michael E. Ross, reviewing for Entertainment Weekly, called the book a "biting and often humorous analysis." Two of Lanning's books, The Only War We Had: A Platoon Leader's Journal of Vietnam and Vietnam, 1969-1970: A Company Commander's Journal, are extremely personal accounts, based on his own experiences in Vietnam and drawing heavily from the journals he kept during that time. David Traxel, in a review of Vietnam, 1969-1970 for the New York Times Book Review Online, called the book "one of the most honest and horrifying accounts of a combat soldier's life to come out of the Vietnam War." In The African-American Soldier: From Crispus Attucks to Colin Powell, Lanning takes a broader look at warfare, concentrating on the role of the African American soldier since the American Revolution. He focuses on racism within the ranks and provided a listing of additional source material for readers interested in the social and political aspects of military integration. Roland Green, in a review for Booklist, noted: "Some of the examples are brutal, but this is a fascinating account and excellent introductory material." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly called the book an "illuminating and much-needed history." BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES: BOOKS. Lanning, Michael Lee, The Only War We Had: A Platoon Leader's Journal of Vietnam, Texas A&M University Press (College Station, TX), 2007. Lanning, Michael Lee, Vietnam, 1969-1970: A Company Commander's Journal, Texas A&M University Press (College Station, TX), 2007. PERIODICALS. Black Issues in Higher Education, August 21, 1997, Willie Curtis, review of The African-American Soldier: From Crispus Attucks to Colin Powell, p. 44. Booklist, July 1, 1992, Roland Green, review of Inside the VC and the NVA: The Real Story of North Vietnam's Armed Forces, p. 1914; December 1, 1996, Roland Green, review of The Military 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Military Leaders of All Time, p. 626; May 15, 1997, Roland Green, review of The African-American Soldier, p. 1546; February 15, 1999, Brad Hooper, review of The African-American Soldier, p. 1012; August 1, 2006, George Cohen, review of The Civil War 100: The Stories behind the Most Influential Battles, People, and Events in the War between the States, p. 32. Choice, December 1, 1994, H.C. Willias, review of Vietnam at the Movies, p. 611. Entertainment Weekly, July 15, 1994, Michael E. Ross, review of Vietnam at the Movies, p. 57. Insight on the News, September 14, 1992, Roger Charles, review of Inside the VC and the NVA, p. 19. Library Journal, July 1, 1992, Mel D. Lane, review of Inside the VC and NVA, p. 102; June 1, 1994, Richard W. Grefrath, review of Vietnam at the Movies, p. 108; December 1, 1996, William D. Bushnell, review of The Military 100, p. 118; July 1, 2003, Gerald Costa, review of The Battle 100: The Stories behind History's Most Influential Battles, p. 103. Publishers Weekly, October 30, 1995, review of Senseless Secrets: The Failures of U.S. Military Intelligence from George Washington to the Present, p. 52; November 11, 1996, review of The Military 100, p. 68; May 5, 1997, review of The African-American Soldier, p. 188. Reference & Research Book News, July 1, 1996, review of Senseless Secrets, p. 70; August 1, 1997, review of The African-American Soldier, p. 180; August 1, 2003, review of The Battle 100, p. 31. Reviews in American History, March 1, 1995, Charles E. Neu, review of Inside the VC and the NVA, p. 144. School Library Journal, August 1, 2003, Eldon Younce, review of The Battle 100, p. 111. Vietnam, December 1, 1999, "Michael Lee Lanning Began Writing Because He ‘Got Tired and Angry with All That Was Written about Vietnam,’" p. 12. Michael Lee Lanning. Lanning was born in Sweetwater, Texas to James Maurice and Alice Coskey Lanning. He married Linda Moore of Roby, Texas on December 20, 1967. They have two daughters, Reveilee Ann and Meridith Moore. He currently resides on the Bolivar Peninsula of Texas. Education. Trent High School, Trent, Texas 1964 , College Station, TX, BS Agricultural Education, 1968. Lanning completed student teaching in Stephen F. Austin High School, Bryan, Texas, under the tutelage of James C. Dooley, teacher of vocational agriculture. , Commerce, TX, MS Journalism 1977 , Fort Leavenworth, KS, 1979. Military career. Upon graduation from Texas A&M in 1968 Lanning was commissioned a second lieutenant and received infantry, airborne, and ranger training at Fort Benning, Georgia. After a tour as a platoon leader in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, NC he reported to Vietnam where he served as an infantry platoon leader, reconnaissance platoon leader, and rifle company commander in the 2d Battalion, 3d Infantry of the 199th Light Infantry Brigade. [3] Subsequent tours of duty took him throughout the United States and Germany as he served as an instructor in the U.S. Army Ranger School, a mechanized infantry company commander in the 3rd Infantry Division, and executive officer of an infantry battalion in the 1st Cavalry Division. Non command assignments included Public Affairs Officer for the 1st Cavalry Division and I Corps and the plans officer for the American Forces Information Service. Military Decorations and Badges. Writing career. Lanning is the author or co-author of 21 non-fiction books on military history, sports, and health. More than a million copies of his books are in print in fifteen countries, and editions have been translated into eleven languages. He has appeared on major television networks and the History Channel as an expert on the individual soldier on both sides of the Vietnam War.