Please feel free to discuss/rate books here in this section.

Greetings gentlemen.

A note about a book that I finished last night.

It was the best AND the worst book I’ve read about combat flying in Vietnam (and I assure you, I’ve read most probably 90% of our list…plus then some). It was disturbing to a point that I can hardly explain…I’m not ashamed to say that I woke up several times last night thinking about it. As a person whose passions in life include flying machines (esp. helos), and the written word, this narrative is superb and satiates both. (caveat: by “worst”, I don’t mean bad…maybe disturbing is a better description)

This book is the end result of a compilation of 80+ stories that this gentleman wrote for the VA to help with his PTSD treatment. To say that his year in Vietnam had a powerfully negative effect on him would be an understatement. He has since learned to live with his nightmares and lead a (mostly) normal life. God bless him.

(short lead-in)

Late in the war (1970), a young man from El Paso, Texas defers two draft notices through college attendance, but is nailed by notice #3. He enters the Army, but decides to attend flight school and become a Warrant Officer (“for the challenge”) to fly Dust Off, thus staying square with his “anti-war” feelings.

He ends up flying slicks with the 116 AHC detached to the 25th Infantry Division (“Tropic Lightning”) in Chu Chi, then ends his tour with the Americal Division at Chu Lai. He goes from FNG, to AC, to Company IP, to Flight Lead of the entire unit. His narrative along the way is unparalleled…the good, the bad and (incredibly) ugly. His final few missions are in concert with the 101st  Airborne in support of that unbelievable debacle known as “Lam Son 719” (or “Dewey Canyon II”).

As we know, all that flew helicopters in Vietnam saw “some” sh*t, some saw more than their fair share, and some saw nothing but the “south end of the north bound mule”. This man (and the 116th “Hornets”) seem to be in a category all their own. He was in the suck almost from the moment his feet hit the tarmac on Day 1. How he lived through all the deaths (and his near demise) so many times, and remain “mostly” sane is a testament to the human condition (plus his professionalism as an Army Aviator… and the love he had for his fellow pilots).

(spoiler alert) His last mission is so haunting and disturbing that I literally couldn’t stop replaying it in my mind last night while I lay in the hotel bed wishing for sleep to come. I’ve read about LOTS of ugly missions, but I can assure you…nothing like this. To top it off, he was to DEROS THE NEXT DAY…and wasn’t even supposed to be flying that day! I offer it will probably leave you shocked and numb…like it did this old pilot. (He mentions during the chapter that [excepting his VA doctor and a few close friends], he had not talked [or written] about what happened on that mission for the last 45+ years since returning from that living hell)

I give you “Hornet 33: Memoir of a Combat Helicopter Pilot in Vietnam” by Ed Denny

https://www.amazon.com/Hornet-33-Memoir-Helicopter-Vietnam/dp/1476666091/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1513043234&sr=1-1

I hope you enjoy it.

Thanks BBall,

Just downloaded it to my Kindle.

DC

Givin it a go

B, on behalf of my wife, thanks for ending the quest for a good Xmas present Cheers !

Thanks for the book review BBall. I'll be adding it to my collection.

A friend recommended CW2 by Layne Heath to me 25 years ago and I finally bought it and finished it yesterday. Although it is fiction the author served 2 tours in Vietnam and knows what he is writing about.

The book follows the main character Billy Roark from basic training to his 2nd tour.

One line stuck with me. After his first tour, when Billy was thinking how to explain what it was like over there to his friends and family,

"I could have told them how I hated it and loved it and missed it..."

Tom Clancy's review - "A superb novel, powerful, eloquent, uncompromisingly realistic"

Highly recommended.

Just ordered a copy, thanks

Wow I just read this again last year. Gets strange at the end though. I bought my copy circa 1985