There's a few, but the one that sticks out is Franklin Allen Leib's
The Fire Dream which is, in all probablility, my favorite piece of fiction pertaining to the Viet Nam War.
The heart of the story trails a Army-Navy Gunfire Liason Company from its formation and early trials of 1966-67 and wraps up with the Tet Offensive in 1968. The story follows four primary characters (Stuart, Coles, Moser, and Hunter). Incidentally, the first half the book provides the origin stories of each - Stuart and Moser aboard the USS
Valley Forge and Coles and Hunter as marine infantrymen beginning stateside - before putting them together in South Viet Nam.
Like most such animals it goes for a cross-section of American society. Stuart is a freshly-minted naval ROTC grad who begins his naval career as a gunnery officer aboard an aging WWII aircraft carrier and distinguishes himself (somewhat unevenly, in his own estimate) during a couple of small incidents over the southern delta. Unfortunately for him, the rising of his star as an officer and a leader finds a sad mirroring in the collapse of his life at home.
Moser is a gunner's mate in Stuart's division. He's the gentle-giant type - not too bright, but a fair hand at repairing ordnance. As it happens he develops a strong loyalty to Stuart early on, as Stuart recognizes Moser's particular talents and acts on his behalf when possible. Off-ship Moser's pet is a Browning .50-caliber he carries in seabag, to the considerable amusement or amazement of most.
Coles is the angry black kid. Shorted an athletic career, he went to the marines instead and wound up drawing a plum assignment in California, but the machinations of garrison life and a lingering sense of guilt eventually prod him to Viet Nam, where be becomes the first of the four to join the ANGLICO.
Hunter, aptly named, is probably the most interesting of the group. A recon man, he's in his element outside the wire and tends to go astray otherwise. Early on he's wounded badly in the small fights outside Khe Sahn and evacuated stateside. Driven - but haunted - he returns on unfinished business, even if he's never quite sure what that business might be.
Honorable mention goes to Colonel (later General) Blackjack Beaurive, who functions as a mentor to Stuart and, impressed by the performance of the ANGLICO under his command, frequently attaches the unit to his own. Beaurive provides an interesting view of higher-level army officers that seldom makes it out of the accepted narrative of Viet Nam in general and the grunts-eye-view of fiction in particular - he's a gutsy, flamyboyant personality that nonetheless cares strongly for his subordinates and feels personally their losses - a grunt's grunt with heavy brass on his shoulders, as it were. Half Patton, half Stonewall Jackson, Beaurive could easily carry a book on his own.
From a technical standpoint it's a pretty solid read. Leib was, incidentally, a gunnery officer in his time and the details of calling close-air and the chaotic nature of an unforgiving environment, a cagey enemy, and the fickle nature of chance and luck in combat ring true. Especially notable are Stuart's first experience calling fire support while blinded by weather and a latter engagement that hinges on the participation of a WWII-era all-gun cruiser. Through it all Lieb gives us four very different leads from different worlds who nonetheless form an effective team. Each remains true to his origins and principles as a living, breathing individual inside the larger military machine. When the casualties begin it's a punch in the gut.
This is probably the only book I've ever found that manages to use 'Viet Nam' and 'Glory' in the same breath without falling flat. Any politics aside (and there are politics aplenty to be had here) it's a fine read in its own right. Decidedly worth a look if you're interested in the period, the war, small-unit dynamics in general, of if you're hunting a break from the usual crop of grunt/fighter-pilot fiction that tends to define the Viet Nam war genre.
I've read it three or four times now. No doubt I'll read it again.
- edited to correct Stuart as a ROTC (rather than Naval Academy) graduate -