Tweet “22yrs old, aircraft captain of a Huey in Vietnam, flying into hot LZs and saved a bunch of people”] 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). Robert Mason writes about his experience of the brutality of a war he fought when he was young. He wrote about his time in Vietnam in 1965-66. For a while those fighting thought they were winning a war that would go on for years longer and claim many more victims. 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.

Setting Up Camp", the third chapter, tells the story of the Cavalry's deployment to An Khe, in central South Vietnam, and Mason's first combat experiences in September 1965. In an epilogue, Mason sketches out his activities upon returning to the US, including his incarceration for smuggling.All the humor notwithstanding, you can’t help noticing that the book gets darker as it progresses. You’re not only witnessing the author’s flying and derring-do, you’re also there as he is being broken as a human being, succumbing first to the various temptations, suffering the consequences and losing his mental health and of course eventually dragging his family into it.

This is one of my favourite books of all time. It was loaned to me very graciously, many years ago, and once I got my own copy I have never stopped re-reading it. Mason's honesty about his ambitions (not really a very gung-ho warrior) and subsequent realization that all the smart-ass antics in the world weren't going to save him really endeared him to me. I cried at the end the first time, and most times since. Mr. Mason’s memoire captures an accounting of the Vietnam War first through the eyes of young exuberant American boy who simply wanted to fly. In a very short but descriptive fashion we read of his training, early assignment to Ft. Belvoir – Alexandria, VA; and, then-sooner-than-hoped reassignment to the First Cavalry Division (Air Mobility). Reading through this torrential hell of the many valleys and outposts in Vietnam we the readers see the deep truth to the cynicism behind the events as they occur. Books by authors who write of their accounts of History and as they perceive it to have been all have this common thread in each of their books; Mr. Mason spent a lot of time recounting all of this and I can speculate it was for his own sanity later.

Green snakes and 31 out of 33 species being poisonous. And having the "eyes" and cognition as that man did who knew he just got bit- so laid down in the deep grass to sleep and to die. Some other reviewers have stated that they felt it a bit repetitive, over-simplified and, despite the action, somewhat slow. I agree that it is a simple, bare style but would argue that is what makes it so difficult and rewarding to read. Without doubt being a helicopter enthusiast, or better yet, a fellow pilot will help because of our appreciation of how risky mountain helicopter operations can be even without the gunfire. You can feel how agonizingly vulnerable a 2 minute engine start makes you, or how slow 120 knots is compared to bullets. One of the most iconic sounds that people relate to the Vietnam War is the “womp, woosh” of American Huey helicopters. Whether watching a film like Apocalypse Now or reading a book on the war those sounds will reverberate in the reader’s mind. During the war about 12,000 helicopters were deployed by the United States military. Of that number 7,013 were Hueys, almost all of which were US Army. The total number of helicopter pilots killed in Vietnam was 2202, and total non-pilot crew members who died were 2704. The most accurate estimate of the number of helicopter pilots who served in the war was roughly 40,000. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (4 August 1983). "No Headline". The New York Times . Retrieved November 6, 2009.

reprint stiff wrappers Near Fine small octavo 399pp., Author flew over 1000 combat missions in Vietnam. A Gruesome and often amusing account of a waste of lives and technology. The author Bob Mason deployed to Vietnam with 1st Cavalry Division and their 450 Hueys at the opening of the Vietnam war. I will have PTSD just from reading this book. Short scenes and events strung together. Moments in the lives and deaths of a group of men in a war. The big story is the war. The real stories are the individual actions and interactions between the men. And then there is some occasional sane thinking: Unaffected, straightforward... His descriptions of flying air assault, med-evac and ammo-resupply missions make exhilarating reading...an important addition to our growing Vietnam War literature.

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 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. 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. And I just have to add several issues that others sure haven't in regard to details in this telling. I STILL know at least 4 men who use the phrase "swave and deboner". Said AND spelled exactly like that. In fact, I heard it last week- just outside a conference room after a MRI between two of them.

They fundamentally changed the way that war was fought. Probably nothing is more iconic from that period than the Bell UH-1 Huey. The Huey was the first turbine helicopter to enter production for the US military and brought a significant boost to capabilities over existing machines. How extraordinarily touching it is that these men who have suffered so much still want to make us better...If I sound just a little overwrought, I defy you to read this straightforward, in many ways underwrought, narrative and feel any differently...filled with the grim humor of men under pressure, filled with details..." Forgotten the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Visit BookSleuth

I most certainly appreciated the new “Afterward” Mr. Mason inserted some 20+ years later after the first edition of this book. To all the Vietnam Veterans who served and believed they were doing good (regardless of your personal views later and regardless whether those views are “for” or “against” the war) I thank you – God Bless you! Welcome Home! 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. He experiences the accelerating terror, the increasingly desperate courage of a man 'acting out the role of a hero long after he realises that the conduct of the war is insane,' says the New York Times. While waiting to see whether Burger could sell the book, Mason began writing what would eventually be his second book, a novel, Weapon. In January 1981 he was arrested for attempting to smuggle a boatload of marijuana from Colombia into the United States. This book is a classic for a reason; THE best book on the Hueys' and their pilots' roles in the early days of Vietnam. It actually reminded me a lot of "American Sniper," in that it's the story of a good soldier in a bad war who has trouble readjusting to the real world.