Soul Patrol review – heartstopping story of the US army’s first Black special ops team at work in Vietnam
The Soul Patrol was at one level a special forces unit, an elite squad that was tough, capable, resourceful, operating at the highest standards of soldiering – and yet it was also subject to racist exploitation as cannon-fodder.
Key points
- One heart stopping anecdote is about a panicky member of the unit, who had never seen fireflies before, and became convinced he had seen a Vietcong insurgent in the undergrowth, smoking a cigarette.
- Their duty was to go behind the Vietcong enemy lines, each carrying 150lbs of kit and an M16 assault rifle, and in conditions of terrifying danger report on the enemy’s movements.
- The film also reports on their later, poignant reunion as old men, using their contemporary home-movie footage and dramatically recreating some scenes.
It is based on the 2003 memoir of the same title by unit member Ed Emanuel (who had gone into journalism in civilian life), based on his own experiences and those of his comrades who he had been able to track down.
Additional details
- The publication of the book itself was intended to bring other ex-soldiers out of the woodwork, which it duly did.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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