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..." He was an everyday combat hero in Vietnam, and he has written quite a good book...endless cold sweat nights before and after repeated landings in enemy-ringed landing zones...the serious and intuitive business of flying helicopters in combat." 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. Vietnam was a nightmare in so many ways. Now we have unmanned drones that kill from the air and humans that blow themselves up in a crowd. classic descriptions of helicopter warfare that are among the most realistic and exciting in print...humor and pathos, anger and frustration...grit, grime and gore."

Can’t blame them, can you?” said the lieutenant. “Every time they do, we clobber the sh1t out of them.’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.

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.

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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. powerful, sustained descriptions...of men at war...painfully honest...an integral book about the war of attrition." Add this one to my long list of books about the American War in Vietnam. I am the right age to have been drafted for that war, but was not due to a variety of deferments and a high lottery number. The short story is that I was considering fleeing to Canada if I was drafted but never had to make that momentous decision that would have significantly changed my life. I never came to that fork in the road so will always wonder what I would have done if I was actually faced with that choice.

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. Chapter eight, "Bong Son Valley", written about the events of February 1966, contains Mason's description of a Vietnamese village and the bars of Qui Nhon.

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I had long wondered what it was like for those who were in Vietnam and this account, by Robert Mason, a helicopter pilot, gives us a good look at the conditions which the troops over there had to work under, as well as the author's questioning of why they were there and how to tell friend from foe. So many shades of grey. The troops on the ground undoubtedly had it far worse than the helicopter pilots did and the accounts of bodies piled up or soldiers missing limbs, was a constant refrain. Robert Mason had over 1000 helicopter missions during his year in Vietnam. Some moments were peaceful, many were not. The second chapter, "August Cruise", describes Mason's trip to Vietnam with the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) aboard the USS Croatan, in August 1965.