Sông Bé A Legacy of Vietnam is a factually-based narrative told in flashback from a present-day evening concert at the New Orleans Orpheum Theater. It features a fit, world-renowned architect, Richard Foxworth, a West Point graduate, who reacts to what his wife finds in his old Army footlocker. It triggers long-buried memories of his role as a second lieutenant in the Vietnam War Tet Offensive battle of Sông Bé in 1968, the physical wounds he sustained in the battle, his treatment at Rollingwood Sanitarium for post-traumatic stress, the dream that haunted him nightly after the battle, and the emotional loss of a West Point classmate. Threaded through the story is a history of the American civil rights movement since the 1950s.The factual bases of the story derive from the author's research and experiences as the son of a career Army officer, the first of three brothers to graduate from West Point, a Vietnam War veteran, serving as an Army aviator in the Middle East, as an engineer, the founder of an international consulting company, the Chief Strategy Officer for Ion Power Group LLC, and as an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University and the United States Military Academy.Born in 1945, a month after V-J Day, he has always seen himself as part of a generation that grew up in a time of great change and hope for a brighter and more equal world, those espousing racial equality being increasingly heard. As to the authenticity of the military and battle elements of the story, as well as to the Battle of Sông Bé specifically, five months after graduating from West Point in June 1967, Rich Adams was one of the first in the Class of 1967 to serve in the Vietnam War and fought in the Battle of Sông Bé on February 18, 1968, during the North Vietnamese Tet Offensive. Prior to deployment to Vietnam to serve with the 101st Airborne Division as a forward observer and fire direction officer for an artillery battery, he shared a barracks room with an African-American lieutenant for Airborne training. The man responded to him at the end of the first week of airborne school as Redman does in Sông Bé when queried by Foxworth if he wanted to go with the guys into Columbus, Georgia, for a few beers and to blow off some steam ... it wasn't going to happen. Relevant to the story, Rich Adams served as a Casualty Assistance Officer to a family suffering the loss of a husband and father killed in Vietnam, and prior to resigning from the military in 1974, he administered the race relations program and unit-wide race relations seminars for a major U.S. command in Germany, the 24 th Engineer Group, during a time of intense racial unrest within the military. Review by Michael McConnell. I have followed Rich Adams and have read all his books. I was particularly interested in reading "Song Be," knowing it did a thorough job of covering PTSD. My father, a WW II veteran and several friends, Vietnam veterans, have had or have PTSD. The novel's protagonist, Richard Fox, has PTSD and his story is gripping and provides great insight into this war-related disorder. I was totally immersed in this novel, and Rich Adams has helped me better relate to the father I never really knew and what he went through. My mother shared with me when I was a young adult and old enough to understand, "Your Dad was not the man I married" because of his military experience. God Bless my father (RIP) and others who served and serve our country. Richard Foxworth received help and manages his PTSD. Thank you, Rich Adams; I can now better relate to and appreciate my father. Sherry Luhman. This is a superb, emotional story of Vietnam told by someone who was there and lived it. His flashback story of The Concert and his post-war mental health treatment are exceptional. Jennifer Brinks. "Sông Bé is a thrilling historically accurate novel and example of prose writing that enters the current-day rather pastoral life of a globally acclaimed architect whose wife discovers something rummaging through his old Army trunk that brings back memories he's long buried about a battle he was in during the Vietnam War and the physical and emotional wounds he sustained. The story is an emotional rollercoaster ride that weaves together at least four plot lines, including the evolution of American civil rights. Reading about the author at the end of the book, I was shocked to find he actually fought in the battle of Sông Bé. This story has got to be made into a movie! Richard Barlow Adams is a man of faith, a writer/speaker, and a lover of American and world history and historical fiction, Christmas, and all things Dickens. He is the son of an Army officer, the first of three brothers to graduate from West Point, a Vietnam veteran, an Army aviator with a tour in the Middle East, a registered professional engineer, the founder of an international consulting company, and currently the chief strategy officer for Ion Power Group LLC, an innovative eco-friendly renewable