LZ Sitting Duck: the Fight for FSB Argonne

The Pritzker Military Museum & Library is excited to welcome a panel of special guests to discuss their new book published in April 2021, LZ Sitting Duck: The Fight for FSB Argonne.  Authors John Arsenault LtCol USMC (ret) and Thomas Gourneau will discussing their book which collects the experiences of the veterans who fought for the Fire Support Base Argonne.  

About the Authors

Lieutenant Colonel John Arsenault United States Marine Corps (retired) served with Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, 3rd Marine Division from 1968-1969.  He left the Marine Corps in 1970, briefly attended college, and worked in the television industry.  He returned to the Marine Corps in 1985, rose through the enlisted and officer ranks, and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in November 2008.

Thomas Gourneau entered the US Coast Guard in 2007 in Honolulu Hawaii and honorably discharged in 2011. Served as a machinery technician second class (MK2). While in the US Coast Guard was deployed to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill based in Pensacola FL. Received a superior performance award from vice commandant ADM John P Currier for duties performed keeping the cutters in operational status.

About the Moderator

Karl Marlantes grew up in Seaside, Oregon. Upon graduation from Yale University, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University. In 1969—after just one semester at Oxford—Marlantes decided to forego his scholarship and enlist for active duty with the U.S. Marines. After the war, Marlantes began to write about his experiences in Vietnam. His novel, Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War, was published in 2010 and became one of a New York Times top ten best sellers. In 2011, Marlantes published his first non-fiction work, What It is Like To Go To War.