"DUTY-HONOR-COUNTRY": FIRST EDITION OF SAMMY LEE DAVIS' YOU DON'T WIN 'TIL YOU QUIT TRYING, INSCRIBED BY HIM

DAVIS, Sammy Lee and LAMBERT, Caroline. You Don't Lose 'Til You Quit Trying. Lessons on Adversity and Victory from a Vietnam Veteran and Medal of Honor Recipient. New York: Berkley Caliber, 2016. Octavo, original red and black paper boards, original dust jacket. $150.

First edition of this memoir of a famous Vietnam Medal of Honor recipient, inscribed on the title page: "Sammy L Davis in Duty-Honor-Country."

"The fight begins with a North Vietnamese Army mortar attack that detonates a makeshift ammo dump at Fire Support Base Cudgel. One round momentarily stuns PFC Sammy Lee Davis, one of forty-two U.S. Army artillerymen at the site. Then a bugle call signals a charge by hundreds of NVA soldiers. Sammy Lee Davis, with Caroline Lambert, describes that scene to begin You Don’t Lose ‘Til You Quit Trying: Lessons on Adversity and Victory from a Vietnam Veteran and Medal of Honor Recipient. Davis received the Medal of Honor for his actions that day. But the book recounts far more than that event. Sammy Davis most definitely is his own man, fully cognizant of his capabilities. His greatest attributes are self-sufficiency and unselfish concern for others… When he enlisted in the Army at twenty in 1966, he followed a family tradition of military service that stretched back to the Spanish-American War. At Cudgel, wounded by both enemy and friendly fire, Davis single-handedly fought back with his rifle, a machine gun, and a howitzer. His actions stalled the NVA charge, then he crossed a canal under fire and rescued three wounded and stranded infantrymen. His post-battle story follows a pattern that challenges reason. His injuries included kidney perforations and vertebra inflicted by flechettes that also shredded his lower back; a bullet in his leg; ribs separated from his sternum; shrapnel wounds and burns across his face, hands, and neck; and traumatic brain damage… Davis persuaded Gen. William Westmoreland to allow him to return to his unit as soon as he could walk… 'The Medal of Honor changed my life in ways I never expected. Wearing it comes with duties and obligations,' Davis says, 'honoring what it represents and refraining from anything that would tarnish what it stands for.'" (Henry Zeybel, The VVA Veteran). “Sammy Davis’s exploits may sound like a movie script, but Sammy is the real deal” (Jack Jacobs, Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired)). With Foreword by award-winning actor and military-focused philanthropist Gary Sinise.

Fine condition.