The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A Memoir of Friendship, Loyalty and War―A Wildly Entertaining Memoir of an Insane, Yet Heartwarming, Beer Delivery to Vietnam

Most enjoyable story. Excellent research he did later regarding the moments in time"Chick" experienced. I understand his conservative nature during those times.My father, 4 children, Major USMC, was in Vietnam 1965, essentially first wave.Wounded mortar fire from local villages. We did not know US held the daysand the Vietcong, NVA held the nights. Pops did not support the USA govtand their Vietnam war from around 1966 on. I did not understand simply too young at that time.My USMC dad/pops always supported USA and those who fought 100%. Our govt were fools IMHO.Chickie eventually seems to believe the same about the USA govt during this time IMO.Him being on the ground at the USA Embassy during Tet, incredible he survived.To be honest the story from start to finish sounds so improbable one would think the bookwas a well written fiction story LOL.... Start to finish I enjoy the book, historical stories, and his luck.Two Thumbs Up. Wish movie version video would play in USA dvd machines. But does not.Congrats on a well written, incredibly documented and researched years later of what was actuallygoing on via battles, tet, usa govt thinking, etc....... Remember many protesters like myself supportedthe USA and Soldiers. Those who did not, were simply ignorant. But does not mean they were not good citizens and most held democracy high and most moved on to very successful careers/families/lives.I know also regret their sad opinions of our Vietnam soldiers at that time who sadly thought they were fighting for our freedom and support.Great book will read again someday

The authors paint a fast-moving picture of what one individual can accomplish when he/she is devoted to a goal, which, in this case, was “delivering a beer” and, much more importantly, hometown support to U.S. soldiers in Vietnam. While, as other reviewers point out, some of the tales presented in the text may have been embellished a bit, this doesn’t detract at all from the basic tenets – improvisation, perseverance, courage and devotion – that “Chick” displayed in spades from the minute he set out on this “beer run” until his return to Manhattan and Doc Fiddler’s bar. If one wants a snapshot-look at what life was like through the eyes of a U.S. civilian, albeit a former U.S. Marine, in Vietnam surrounding the Tet Offensive (January through March 1968), this would be a good place to start. Two book misperceptions need to be cleared up. Victory ships were named after countries, U.S. colleges and cities. Chick’s ship, Drake Victory, was named for Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, not Sir Francis Drake. Drake Victory and all other Victory ships, with the exception of a single type AP4 ship that was driven by a Nordberg-built diesel engine, were powered by steam turbine engines NOT the double compound German Lentz engine. The first Victory ship design, EC2-S-AP1, unveiled to the public in March 1943, did include the Lentz engine as its power source. When representatives of the U.S. steam turbine industry assured the Maritime Commission that they could develop an in-house uniform turbine engine and produce it in “quantity,” the latter dropped the Lentz engine from its initial Victory ship design.

Easy Fun Read! And it's a true story! Great to read about the length true friendship will go too.

Good book

Great easy read with a bizarre story. Chick is a guy I'd live to have a beer or ?? with.

A Great true story. Just Amazing

I saw a clip of a documentary about this guy and knew I had to read the book. Chicken Donahue is a total savage! Over drinks one night in his hometown bar someone mentioned that he should take beers to their neighbors serving in Vietnam. So he did! He traveled as a civilian all the way to Vietnam and found most of the friends he was looking for. He had a few close calls and ended up in some places long enough to get a job. But he took those boys beer and support from the states. Insane!The book was written by himself so it's definitely not a literary masterpiece but it holds a lot of Vietnam history in its pages. It was actual a very clean book as well as Chick tried to keep it family friendly.

Co-authored by a former Marine, a candid humorous portrayal of his adventurous trek to Vietnam during the war, to search for his buddies, and, of course, to deliver the all-important beer. But, an unforseen calamitous predicament erupts when he inadvertently stumbles upon the unexpected Tet Offensive ambushing the Americans: "It had been masterminded by General Giap and his military logistician, Le Duan, who took advantage of [U.S. President] LBJ's acceptance of a [Tet] New Year's truce to launch the attack. It was the definition of perfidy" (p. 115). An insane outrageous odyssey. Unbelievable, yet true.