Some of you read the first edition of The Long Patrol, Book 7 in the Rangers series, when it came out in 2024. A few of you told me what was wrong with it. You were right, and I couldn't let it stand.


Two things bothered readers most. The book spent too much time with men talking about the war and too little time in it. And the history was off. I had the 1st Infantry Division's long-range patrols, Recondo School and some of their gear in Vietnam a year before they were actually there. For a series that tries to get the details right, that was a real miss.


So I didn't patch it. I started over from the first page.


The second edition opens in March 1966, when the Big Red One was forming its first LRRP teams out of volunteers from the rifle companies. David Miller starts as a green platoon leader in a line company, then volunteers for the new patrols. The book follows him through one year in the field, from the dry season through the monsoon to Operation Cedar Falls. The war is on the page now, not on the radio.


What stayed: David, his men, and a father who came home from his own wars and never talked about them. What changed: nearly everything else. The patrols are new, the mistakes are new, and so are the losses and the people who pay for them. There's also an officer on David's own side who wants numbers more than he wants the truth, and that turns out to be the harder enemy.


The first edition has been withdrawn. If you bought it, thank you, and I hope you'll give this one a chance. If you're new to the series, this is the version to read.


The second edition is out today in ebook and paperback.