Chickenhawk [Paperback]

Robert Mason's writing style is so matter-of-fact that everything rings true, and is superbly entertaining at the same time. The reader feels that he can fly a helicopter himself, so convincing are the descriptions about the training, the flying controls, the night-time formation flying, etc.

If you were a teenager in the 60's (like me), the Vietnam war is usually remembered through the newsreel bulletins of the time, with their footage of B-52 air strikes, burning Vietnamese villages and so on. Robert Mason's book tells the same story of what was (ultimately) a terrible waste of time, money, and, not least, human life. However, this book transports you to Vietnam itself, so vivid are the recollections. Mason's descriptions of the people involved in the conflict, mostly North & South Vietnamese and American, gives a completely authentic insight into their mentality at that time. On the one side, Communists, fanatical in their fight against Colonial/Imperial rule, who built tunnels under the enemy and would walk or cycle into battle, and on the other, the (mostly) Americans, who had the best military technology in the world and could fly anywhere in the country by fast jet, military transport or, more likely, in a Bell Huey helicopter, as flown by Robert Mason, and described so brilliantly in Chickenhawk.

My own first copy of the book, bought so many years ago, was lent to a friend and never returned. It's replacement, now also a few years old, has been read and re-read so often that it is well worn and dog-eared. It's a great book - perhaps it's time I got it off the shelf again!.

I have a hole inside me, it was formed as I turned the last pages of Chickenhawk for the first time. Mason's story is written with such honesty and clarity that the you immediately empathise with the fresh faced young Mason, and you feel great for it. As the story progresses, Mason's descent into horror hooks you, and by the time you realise what's going on, it's too late. You're no longer a spectator. Mason has paid the highest tribute to the men who suffered in Viet Nam by allowing us to experience the horror, in ways that are too real, too uncomfortable. I have never been more grateful to an author. This book changed my life. I have NEVER met anyone who has read it that hasn't felt the same way. I cried when I finished "We Were Soldiers Once and Young", but I got over it.

I have NEVER got over Chickenhawk. If there's only one book on your shelf, make it this one.

Thank you, Robert Mason.