Chickenhawk - Robert Mason

I have been reading a lot of the more recent Iraq and Afganistan True stories of late, and it was on the off chance that a friend gave me this book telling me it was worth a look, even if i wasnt a fan of the Vietnam era. To be honest i havent read anything from the era, and like most people have seen the classic movies and enjoyed them, so i thought i would give this a good go, and im glad i did. The book was written around 1965-66 from the authors experiences as a huey pilot, lifting soldiers into battle zones and ferrying commanders and supplies around souther Vietnam. The opening of the book lists his dreams as a child of flying through to his ...  Read the complete review

This memoir by a helicopter pilot in Vietnam in 1965-66 is one of the best non-fiction "personal" books to come out of that war, on a par with Michael Herr's Dispatches. The book begins in 1964 as young Robert Mason begins training as an Army Helicopter Pilot. He returned home a wrecked man after a long time in combat flying over 1,000 missions. He flew with the 1st Air Cav and saw a great deal of action, but the book is just as good on the ground as in the air, giving a remarkably vivid sense of what the experience was like. The area of operations is mainly in the central area of South Vietnam - Qui Nonh, Kontum, Pleiku - and among ...  Read the complete review