I was not in Vietnam, I wasn't even in the service, but the recent movie WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE resparked my interest again in a war so few of us really understood. I didn't burn my draft card, protest, or march. I have read 20 books in the past 3 months about Vietnam, 1 was 9 lbs., 3 were the country as in the present. Richie put me right next to him on every page and in every situation. Where is that dog? The good and bad side of not taking gun to a chopper crash site. The Recondo school, I felt the cool breeze coming out of that rock cave as Burns looked inside. This book is writen as a young man would write, not like a middle aged mature man who had lived a good life after returning to the world. I am not sure how Burns does that, but it makes for great reading. I am truly sorry to hear that cancer has cut Richard R. Burns life short. I will make a monetary donation in his memory. Cancer has claimed many of my family members. The History Channel ran a special on Recon Teams and there sat Richie Burns talking about his weeks at Recondo.

I was a friend of Richie Burns so I guess I'm a little biased when it comes to reviewing his book. However, that being said let me add that PATHFINDER is a remarkable first-person war story in that Richie not only told it like it was but made it a very moving, personal account as well. There's no ego here, no 'I was better than yoiu were' war story, just a good look at the Vietnam War.
As you read you're there with him, getting an inside look to the Pathfinder operations he took part in the war and better yet, a closer look at someone you would have been proud to call a friend as well.
When he died of cancer he left behind grieving family and friends and, this book that reminds us that a good man served his country with pride and integrity in the war and long afterwards as a career Special Forces soldier.
What the book doesn't tell you is that he also served as a veteran's counselor and that he had helped so many others try to make some sense of their own war stories.
Buy this book and hold on to it. People like Richie don't come around in life that often and the book is a reminder of what we all lost with his passing.

I was a Pathfinder in Vietnam in 1966/1967 surviving about 150
Pathfinder missions. Pathfinders, from WWII to Afganistan are
rarely mentioned and this book is long overdue. I did not know
Pathfinder Burns but I knew many like him. May God rest and keep
you Richard, Airborne! All The Way!