In 1968 William Hardwick volunteered to go to Vietnam as an officer in the marines. A month into his tour, Hardwick's company had taken significant casualties and was fighting a seemingly invisible but omnipresent enemy in the hills of Vietnam. Down South is the story of how he and his fellow Marines survived their first thirteen-month tour. In December, 1966, William Hardwick was a senior at the University of Oklahoma when he signed up for Marine Corps Officer Candidates School, in the hopes of serving in Vietnam. The war was still relatively small. By December 1968, when Hardwick landed in Da Nang to begin his thirteen-month tour in country, the "conflict" had escalated to unexpectedly violent heights, with five hundred American soldiers killed every week. Assigned as the FO (forward obserber) to Mike Company in support of 3d Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment,