Foreward Reviews, a quarterly magazine focused on books published by independent publishing houses, selected The Price They Paid: Enduring Wounds of War by Michael Putzel (Trysail Publishing 2015) as one of only four works of nonfiction favored by its reviewers as the best books of 2015.
The year-end announcement identified "The best of the best: the books our reviewers loved most in 2015."
Regarding The Price They Paid, Foreward said, "This vivid account of Vietnam War helicopter battles reveals bravery of allied forces who encountered insurmountable odds during a time when American political and public support for the war all but ended."Reviewer Karl Helicher called the book "a haunting portrayal of how PTSD affected men then and now, decades after the war."
The Price They Paid: Enduring Wounds of War is the dramatic, true story of one air cavalry troop in Vietnam that flew into the most intensive helicopter battle ever fought and how that searing experience dogged those troops for more than 40 years. The author, Michael Putzel, was a war correspondent who flew with C Troop, 2/17 Cavalry, 101st Airborne Division, during and after the battle and tracked down the men years later to learn what had become of them. He found practically all of the warriors deeply affected by their combat experience, some still suffering physically as well as struggling with the less visible wounds of war.
Foreward's list also included:
The General and the Genius: Groves and Oppenheimer, the Unlikely Partnership That Built the Atom Bomb by James Kunetka published by Regnery History
Life's Engines: How Microbes Made Earth Habitable by Paul G. Falkowski published by Princeton University Press
Rockin' the Boat: 50 Iconic Revolutionaries by Jeff Fleischer published by Zest Books