|
|
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best possible, true story, of a Vietnam helicopter pilot, 26 Jun 2000
By A Customer
I first read this book about 15 years ago and was absolutely stunned, both by the story itself, and how it was told. 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!.
|
by James H. Webb
by Michael Herr
by Joseph T. Ward
by Kregg P.J. Jorgenson
by John L. Plaster
