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Thomas Drinkard

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Where There Were No Innocents: Green Beret Captain in Vietnam (Mack Brinson Series Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Thomas Drinkard (Author), Paradox Book Cover Formatting (Illustrator), Marjorie Drinkard (Editor) Format: Kindle Edition

67

Book 1 of 2: Mack Brinson Series

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Mack Brinson is a Green Beret Captain in Vietnam at the height of the war, 1967. He’s been selected to serve on the staff of MACV-SOG, the premier covert operations unit in Southeast Asia. He is a lonely man, and his wife’s lawyer serves him with a divorce notice. His assignments so far, have proven less than exhilarating and he has just been handed one more mundane chore.

The conclusion of his tedious task is anything but boring. He fights for his life in a Viet Cong attack on a bloody runway.

His loneliness soon comes to an end. Brinson meets a stunning Eurasian woman, Song. He finds love in an unexpected place.

After Brinson’s first combat experience, his command begins sending him on Top Secret missions. He works with a SOG Recon Team on a wiretap mission along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. He earns the nickname Blade when he escapes from a lethal situation by using his fighting knife.

As a result of his expertise in clandestine surveillance, Brinson is a marked man. The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong put out orders to kill him. Song also becomes a target. He has to find a way to protect her while still carrying out his duties.

Mack’s war includes fighting in the streets of Saigon during the infamous Tet offensive. He and a buddy organize a rescue attempt for a wounded fellow soldier. Will they get there soon enough to save him?

Where There Were No Innocents is a true-to-life story of the Vietnam War written by a former Green Beret, who served with MACV-SOG.

Book 1 of 2

Mack Brinson Series
Print length

220 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publication date

26 June 2011
File size

1985 KB
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0058B9BJW
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Thomas Rowe Drinkard; 1st edition (26 June 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1985 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 220 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 947,224 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 8,386 in War Fiction (Kindle Store)
- 12,951 in War & Military Action Fiction (Books)
- 13,501 in War Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
67

About the author

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Thomas Drinkard

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Thomas Rowe Drinkard was born and reared in the Deep South—Alabama.

He graduated from the University of North Alabama with a degree in English. At graduation, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army and went on active duty eight days later.

Within two years, he volunteered and was accepted into the Special Forces (Green Berets). After Airborne and Special Forces school, he'd found a home. With a few other assignments in between, he spent ten years with the fabled unit. He was unhappy with the Army's plans for his future and left active duty, joining the reserves. He is now a Major, retired reserve.

After the Army, he found his way into teaching and writing in the securities licensing preparation business. His textbooks, articles and CE courses are in use today.

His poetry can be found in a number of literary magazines, including Negative Capability, Cotton Boll/Atlanta Review, Elk River Review and several others.

"Piety and Murder" was his first piece of long fiction to be published. Since publishing that book, he has published "Where There Were No Innocents," "Devil's Blade," "V-Trooper-First Mission,"V-Trooper-Second Mission-The Demon," "Warrior's Psalm,""Overload," "The Shepherd Left Behind, and "Swift & Co. The "V-Trooper" books and "Warrior's Psalm" are novellas.

"Piety and Murder" has been rewritten and will be republished in the Fall of 2017 as "Murder And The Preacher."

He has a new novel, "Nuclear Poison," a sequel to "Overload," as a work in progress to be published in 2018.

He has also published a collection of poetry drawn from his Vietnam War experiences, "Finding The Way Home."

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ralph resor

OK

Reviewed in Germany on 26 January 2019

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OK

Richard L. Weatherly

Vietnam through the eyes of a US Army Special Ops Captain

Reviewed in the United States on 23 December 2013

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Tension builds from the moment Green Beret Captain Mark Brinson’s plane lands in South Viet Nam for a one-year tour of duty. In my opinion, the story offers a superior representation of combat operations than readers will find in most of the popular literature on the subject, especially literature about Vietnam. The soldiers are presented as the professionals they are. Special Ops teams are the best of the best. Team members meld skills and disciplines in a way that allows a small team to perform with maximum efficiency.

Captain Brinson’s primary duty assignment places him in Saigon, however, he finds himself on loan to a Forward Observation Base (FOB) on more than one occasion. It’s where he first has an opportunity to demonstrate his craft and to learn from others who have even more skill. It’s where he builds a reputation, most of it deserved… some exaggerated. While on these special assignments, duty calls him to serve in black ops along the Ho Chi Minh trail.

Between his trips to FOBs, events take on disturbing twists. Early on the teams learn of attempts by the NVA to infiltrate their operations. In the meanwhile, Brinson falls in love with the daughter of a Vietnamese government official.

The novel builds with superbly crafted character, increasing difficult assignments and intrigue. If you want to see a microcosm of 1967, the war in Vietnam through the eyes of a combat professional and get the feel for the planning and precise execution of operations, you’ve got to read this book. I disagree with the reviewer who said this is all tell and no show. I found it to be the opposite. I felt myself moving with stealth through elephant grass while smelling organic decay; patrolling with the ever-present realization that all hell could break loose at any moment.

This is a story about the people in a combat zone; their hopes, dreams, emotions, fear, elation and disappointments. As the story builds toward a climax, you’ll find yourself in Saigon during the Tet Offensive when the NVA attacked during a jointly agreed upon truce.

I enjoyed Where There Were No Innocents (Mack Brinson Series), and highly recommend it to you!

Virtual Pulp

An Officer's Tour in SOG, Viet Nam

Reviewed in the United States on 19 August 2011

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I understand this novel is a prequel to another book, but this was my introduction to the author and character. Mack Brinson is the type of officer every good soldier wishes was in charge. Though his duties in MACV-SOG seem rather nebulous, he voluntarily tags along with SOG teams that go behind the fence, and earns enough respect to be invited to the one-zero table more than once after a mission.

No Innocents provides a fascinating glimpse into the pseudo-secret SOG command structure, administration, and even some operations. Brinson is targeted almost immediately by VC assassins, and has numerous close calls. The reason for his targeting really struck me as plausible, too. In fact, though I'm at least a generation too young to have ever been to Vietnam, so much of this book smacked of authenticacy, thanks to the author's experience in-country. Especially the geography and character interaction...with one exception.

That exception is Brinson's whirlwind relationship with the beautiful Song. I know love-at-first-sight does happen, so it's not that that bothers me, really. But these two decide to get married after one date. I know that happens, too, especially during wartime. I just think, story-wise, it could have been milked for a lot more suspense/conflict. Some suspense did get added to the mix by way of Song's father--an influential man in South Vietnam's intelligence organization, though.

In any event, the guts of this novel is SOG's part in the war up to and including the Tet Offensive, and it was presented so well as to outweigh my issues with the romantic subplot.

Henry Brown is the author of the post-Civil War adventure Radical Times, as well as the military thriller Hell and Gone. He is the columns editor at New Pulp Fiction, and does some blogging of his own at the Two-Fisted Blogger.

One person found this helpful

Deb's Guy

Not quite there.

Reviewed in the United States on 21 June 2012

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Only a curmudgeon would give a negative review to a .99 book. So I will give this one three stars for effort. Look, writing is hard. Writing fiction is even harder. Writing GOOD fiction takes years of work and rejection before you get it right. This book is just boring. One of the basics of good fiction is "show us" don't "tell us." This book is all "tell." it is written like one of the dry, factual but lifeless, reports the main character might write for his superiors.
People are people. You can dress them up in soldier suits or oriental clothing and they will have different characteristics but they are still people. The characters in this book are unreal. They don't talk like real people, they don't act or perform like real people. They just kind of muddle along and every once in a while shoot somebody. I made it through 45% of this book and then I had to quit because it was just not good fiction.
Maybe the author will do better on his next effort. I hope so and I wish him luck. I hope he will read some Martin Cruz Smith and learn how to make his characters real people to the reader.

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RJ McDonnell

Excellent War Novel

Reviewed in the United States on 27 September 2012

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It's been a few years since I read a war novel and I wasn't quite sure I'd get into it. But Thomas Drinkard's masterful storytelling drew me in right away. What turned me off to war novels in the past was what I call the "Rambo Syndrome." That's where unbelievable numbers of enemy troops get killed every few pages by a larger than life character who either skates through unscathed, or is critically injured in one chapter and back to full speed in the next. Drinkard's protagonist, Mack Brinson, is heroic, but in a very credible manner.

What the author brings to this war novel is a natural sense of balance. He taps into the psyche of a soldier in a way that leaves no doubt that he speaks from experience. Rather than bombarding the senses with one action scene after another, Drinkard gives us context by fleshing Brinson out as a fully three dimensional character. We see him interact with his peers, his superior officers, and we see him fall in love. I'm looking forward to reading more of the Mack Brinson Series.

RJ McDonnell

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Where There Were No Innocents: Green Beret Captain in Vietnam (Mack Brinson Series Book 1) Kindle Edition

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