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San Juan Hill was a real forward firebase on an 800-meter hilltop in the southern portion of Quang Ngai province. Now covered over with grass, SJH was located in the southern end of the I-Corps region, the military’s term for the northern provinces of South Vietnam. The 4th battalion, 3rd Regiment, 11th Brigade of the Americal division was indeed based on SJH during 1970 and operated in the surrounding region. Your author served there during the time described in the war-story track.
Over ninety percent of the events described within the “war-story track” are based on actual events. Those were reported in fifty personal letters; additional notes logged during a post-war month of reconstructing events; plus, especially, material sourced from the battalion sit-reps which remain on-line today (see the bibliography). However, those events happened over five decades ago. Herein, they are virtually always embellished to some degree. None of the events as described are to be taken as being historically accurate. Additionally, the events described were experienced by numerous units battalion-wide, not just by either of the two “bush units”—Delta Company’s second platoon and Recon platoon—portrayed herein.
The characters in the book are largely fictional. None of their names and backgrounds match actual names and backgrounds of soldiers with whom the author served proudly.
Finally, the book’s first and last chapters present the types of briefings and debriefings that should have been made available to arriving and returning vets but weren’t, in this writer’s experience. Notable Vietnam veterans, from author Karl Marlantes (What It Is Like to Go to War) to former Nebraska Senator and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to the Coming Home Haunted Foundation, have spoken of the need to work with combat veterans to help them deal with post-war personal trauma. More on moral injury.