Colonel Bill Collier’s OUTNUMBERED 20-TO-1 reviewed by Army War College magazine

Col. Bill Collier’s OUTNUMBERED 20-TO-1

Col. (Ret.) Bill Collier, U.S. Army, signs copies of his book, May 1, 2023.

Veteran commander of the Vietnam War chronicles desperate 54-hour battle

COLUMBIA AND MYRTLE BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA, USA, September 19, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ — Retired U.S. Army Colonel Bill Collier’s new book, OUTNUMBERED 20-TO-1, a highly readable first-person account of one of the Vietnam War’s most harrowing albeit little-known battles against seemingly impossible odds has received a number of stellar reviews since its release earlier this year. The latest review in the ARMY WAR COLLEGE Alumni magazine describe’s Collier’s book as “not only a story of perseverance and heroism, but of our communion with the divine fabric of existence itself.”

Heroism indeed.

Col. (Ret.) Steven B. Vitali, U.S. Marine Corps, who wrote the Foreword to the book, compared the Collier-led battle to Texas’ ill-fated last stand at the Alamo and the British Army’s successful defense of Rorke’s Drift during the Zulu wars.

“As the last significant battle in the [Vietnam] war, Mo Duc speaks to the greater American military tradition and it significantly showcases the valiant efforts of those freedom-desiring though ill-fated South Vietnamese soldiers who made their last stand, winning the battle, though not the war,” wrote Vitali. “Standing on the command precipice was then-Major Bill Collier whose defiant stance against overwhelming odds served as the juggernaut and protagonist against the strategic and political ambitions of the North Vietnamese leadership.”

Collier, who was awarded the Silver Star in 1972, was nominated by Vitali and other combat veterans for the Medal of Honor in 2012. Though the nomination itself failed to meet the requisite number of American witnesses on the ground – Collier was leading South Vietnamese forces – the nomination received strong endorsements from U.S. Air Force pilots flying forward-air-control missions over the Mo Duc battlespace.

In the book’s AFTERWORD, Col. W. Thomas Smith Jr., a retired S.C. Military Department officer and former U.S. Marine infantry leader, wrote: “There are men who are said to be great, though most of those ‘said to be great’ are only penultimately exceptional. Then there are truly great men in the purest sense. Colonel William P. ‘Bill’ Collier Jr. is among the truly great. And not just because I say so. His greatness is objectively true and proven, though the sublimity of that greatness may never have been known were it not for a harrowing 54-hour-period in mid-September 1972 wherein he led a tiny besieged garrison in a desperate defense against waves of fanatically attacking enemy soldiers and accompanying guerillas: Thousands of them.”

Collier, now in his mid-80s, concedes that he believed they were all going to die at Mo Duc. There was no way his tiny little 120-man outpost located in the Quang Ngai Province of South Vietnam was going to survive, especially when the fighting became close and in some quarters devolved into a hand-to-hand slugfest.

But survive they did, beating back a force that outnumbered them 20-to-one. Why? How? Bill, and his masterfully innate ability to compartmentalize his fear (which all men have, but not all are able to manage), his ability to constantly assess the devolving situation and the collapse of his perimeter in every direction, his outwardly confident command-presence, his judgment, encouragement, compassion, courage, and unassailable trust in God. Not to mention, Bill’s tactical and technical expertise enabling him to call for and coordinate supporting fires while running from one point inside the outpost to the next, with pistol (sometimes other weapons) in hand.

Medal of Honor recipient Maj. Gen. (Ret.) James E. Livingston, U.S. Marine Corps, said: “Col. Bill Collier’s story will serve as a timeless model of American combat leadership in a life-and-death struggle against all odds.”

Collier’s OUTNUMBERED 20-TO-1 is available at amazon.com – https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1641467592/

Contact information: Christopher D. Carter
National Defense Consultants, LLC
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