Vietnam helicopter ops

[motto]

I notice the interest in Hueys at the MVPA convention and I was reminded of the best book I have ever read on helicopter operations in Vietnam. This was written by Robert Mason and is titled 'Chickenhawk'. It is an excellent read and gives a first hand account of his training, deployment and operational experience which were at various times, exciting, hair raising and absurd.

David

[charlie fitton]

Yep - a copy here on my shelf..

"Never let a soldier tell you where to land the helecopter"

tense with drama, yet funny.

Ever read Brandywines War? Catch 22 of VN.

[Lang]

Chickenhawk is unique in small scale war memoirs in that there is a corresponding book that details the infantry side of the operations he was involved with. Both books very closely align with the facts of the story.

The other book is "We Were Soldiers Once and Young" - made into a Mel Gibson film. Chickenhawk is mentioned often.

Great read in two parts. The first is the unit Chickenhawk was supporting and their fantastic defensive fire-fight and subsequent victory and the second is of the unit who relieved them and were slaughtered due to unbelievable leadership incompetence.

The best helicopter book I have read is the just released "APACHE" which relates British attack helicopter operations in Afghanistan. The second half is so exciting it was impossible to put down. The Americans did not have a monopoly on useless officers as you will read

Lang

[Mike Cecil]

Have to agree with both Motto and Lang: three excellent books mentioned there that I can't rate highly enough.

Add to them Harry Benson's 'Scram' about helicopter ops in the Falklands: gripping stuff avoiding Argentine Pucara G/A aircraft and other difficulties.

Not purely helicopter, but Robbins 'The Ravens' about light air/nap of the earth ops over Laos is another gripping narrative.

Dave, no Iroquois at the Cleveland convention, but there was an air component in the form of a nicely restored and airworthy B-25 and a couple of other lighter aircraft, plus some big un-restored lumps from the freighter version of the B-29. Combined with an original LCVP 'Higgins boat', it made for a more diverse show that usual. The Higgins was of particular interest: not much timber between you and the incoming 7.92-mm at 1100 rounds per minute. No wonder so many didn't even get onto the beach on June 6.

Mike

[Lang]

Miike

The "Ravens" is certainly the best Vietnam air book after "Thud Ridge". As an ex-army pilot I relate closely to the Bird Dog operations. There is also a bit about my beloved Porters operated by Air America.

Observation and FAC pilots (even USAF ones) just called it "low flying", "nap-of-the-earth" is an Air Force weasel words expression. Probably the Army has been infected with double-talk BS by now and actually have that expression in their vocabulary.

I went to a Ravens reunion dinner in USA about 20 years ago and like the SAS/Green Beret etc veterans, there were 100 Ravens in the whole Vietnam war and 250 of them are still alive!

Lang

[Mike Cecil]

I stand terminalogically corrected! (Is that a word?)

I agree, Lang, and 'When Thunder Rolled' and 'Cheating Death', the latter about air rescue ops in Laos & Vietnam, are certainly 'up there' with the two mentioned.

For a more personal view of the air war over North Vietnam (from Thailand bases), I found the bio of Robin Olds, 'Fighter Pilot' to be outstanding - not that it has anything to do with helicopters, it's just an excellent book about the stresses of flying ops, particularly with the overarching political restrictions imposed from a very safe and remote Washington. It cost the US a lot of pilots & aircraft.

I helped pull a Porter apart once, at Oakey, and stuffed it onto a truck for transport to Canberra. I still marvel at the dexterity of the Porter pilots weaving between the trees during firepower displays at Pucka. Low flying at its most impressive. The closest I got was in a Kiowa and a Blackhawk flying at zero plus a bit (There you are Dave, back to helicopters!)

Mike