Chickenhawk

Product Information

This book was a recommended read by a member of my book club and I am glad I took the time to read it, even though it wasn't my usual reading material. I hated Sherman. Now we were delinquent in our deaths. Running behind in our proper death ratio were we? Well we’ll just see about that. C’mon you guys, let’s go out there and die!” It is very simply the best book so far out of Vietnam—the best book so far and the best book by far." The book begins with Mason's training at the Army's Primary Helicopter School at Fort Wolters, Texas. After graduation in May 1965, he eventually learns he will be sent to Vietnam, making the trip in August with the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) aboard the USS Croatan. The Cavalry is initially posted to An Khe, in central South Vietnam, where Mason first experiences combat. The seventh chapter, "The Rifle Range", describes the events of January 1966, in which Mason crashed his Huey on landing, causing moderate damage but escaping without injury.

December 1965 is described in chapter six, "The Holidays". Mason and a similarly experienced pilot, Resler, who became one of Mason's closest friends from Vietnam, began flying together. The old man said nothing about Morris except that we ought to get some money together for flowers for his wife, but Sherman took it upon himself to give a little speech that night. He suffers from textbook PTSD that eventually drives him out of the air, then out of the army. The nightmares go on and on, sleep comes with the help of alcohol. And his life spirals down. Robert Mason had over 1000 helicopter missions during his year in Vietnam. Some moments were peaceful, many were not.Chapter Four, "Happy Valley", covers October 1965 and describes, among other things, Mason's first R&R in Saigon and an episode in which he accidentally shot out the instrument panel of his own helicopter with a 45 caliber pistol. The author is at his total best when he’s recalling his maneuvers getting in and out of “hot LZ’s” (to you and me, that’s landing zones where the enemy is shooting at you) and I could probably read about every single landing and takeoff detailed in here ten more times and not feel it’s been a waste of time.

It’s one of the advantages of being an officer. We get “nonspecific urethritis.” Enlisted men get the clap.’” The second chapter, "August Cruise", describes Mason's trip to Vietnam with the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) aboard the USS Croatan, in August 1965.Yeah.’ There was silence. Yes, I thought. We’re both scared out of our minds. It felt like we were near the end of our wait on death row.” I first read this book years ago, and it is without a doubt one of the best war memoirs on my shelf and one to which I regularly return (as I just did for the third time, to read during a lengthy trip abroad).

As a child, Robert Mason dreamed of levitating. As a young man, he dreamed of flying helicopters - and the U.S. Army gave him his chance. They sent him to Vietnam where, between August 1965 and July 1966, he flew more than 1,000 assault missions. Tell Me You're Afraid", chapter thirteen, covers Mason's last months in Vietnam, July and August 1966. Yeah, as long as we have helicopters, Phantoms, and B-52 bombers, I thought. I said ‘Maybe the war is almost over.’” This is a personal narrative of what I saw in Vietnam and how it affected me. The events all happened; the chronology and geography are correct to the best of my knowledge. The names of the characters . . . have been changed . . . The book was published in 1983, the year Robert Mason was forty-one years old, eighteen years after he was a twenty-three year old in Vietnam.In chapter nine, "Tension", Mason details his R&R in Taiwan in March 1966 and his decision to volunteer for a transfer out of the "Cav" to another helicopter unit.