Gray Horse Troop by Charles Baker | Books in Review

Gray Horse Troop: Forever Soldiers (Powder River Publications, 360 pp., $15.59, paper) pays tribute to the 5th Battalion, 7th Cavalry’s actions in the Vietnam War during the first six months of 1968. At that time, the book’s author, Charles Baker, served as the 5/7 Operations Officer. Before telling what took place during that time, Baker briefly backfills the 5/7’s history, including its Indian-fighting days.

Baker, a West Point graduate, transferred to the 5/7 as a new Major. However, having just served six months with 3/1 while a Captain, Baker had combat experience. A few days after he arrived, the 5/7 moved to Quang Tri in time for the start of the Tet Offensive.

In great detail, Baker chronicles the fighting of 5/7 north of Hue during Tet ’68. His day-by-day accounts spell out the wins and losses of his unit’s effort to regain control of villages captured by the North Vietnamese Army. Following that task, the 5/7 helped defeat the North Vietnamese controlling Hue.

Baker then employs the same meticulous approach in reporting his unit’s involvement in Operation Pegasus—the massive heliborne assault in support of Khe Sanh—and a far-more-costly assault into the A Shau Valley. Many maps, along with a few photographs, support his well-written and straight-to-the-point narrative.

Charlie Baker’s unfiltered command insight might open the eyes of former enlisted men who still wonder how decisions that affected them were made. Baker is a dedicated soldier’s soldier who constantly considered his men’s welfare. Occasionally, he leaps from past to present, and between Vietnam and Iraq, a trait that should present no problem for anyone who understood Inception or The Matrix .

Best of all, Baker logically finds fault where fault is due. And he generously praises those who did the right thing.

About halfway through the book, retired Col. Baker takes an eight-chapter detour to describe his 2005 trip to Iraq as a reporter/columnist embedded with the 5/7. At this point, his tone changes: He sounds like a crusty old man in search of answers that nobody can provide.

Of course, much of what he sees is discouraging enough to unhinge a saint. In the midst of it, he writes: “It was not easy finding similarities between Iraq and Vietnam.” The way I read it, one might argue that the similarities are there, but they are too depressing to confront. Baker’s frustration sometimes lapses into humor, intentional or not.

At the end of the book, Baker solidifies 5/7’s place in history by including citations for three Medals of Honor and five Distinguished Services Crosses awarded to its members during the first half of 1968. He also lists 325 names of the unit’s Purple Heart recipients for that period.

Most significantly, ahead of all others, he honors the 5/7 soldiers killed in action: 101 from October 1967 to June 1968, and 17 from 2005 to 2013.

—Henry Zeybel

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