Posted: 7/10/2008 2:01:13 AM EDT
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Anyone here read this book? what are your thoughts. I founf the auther, Rober Mason's website, he some pictures up there, I was emailing back and forth with him some time ago, seem like a pretty good guy. He said him and Harrion Ford were working on a Vietnam documentry about chopper pilots, but I can't remeber what it was called. He also mentioned that there have been a few offers to turn Chiken Hawk into a movie but there hasn't been too many good scrips or something like that. Hope they do make it a movie. |
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I thought it was a great book. It would make a good movie. The accounts of the hot LZs where the choppers would set down, the troops would exit and then only some of the choppers would lift (due to the pilots and co pilots all being hit in those few seconds) was chilling. I was also struck by the accounts of setting the helicopter down in the river to let the water soften and wash away the accumulated blood (from carrying the wounded and dead back to the bases) equally chilling. |
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I was speaking to some NZ Airforce Huey pilots at an airshow, they claim it is practically required rading for them, they had all read it and in NZ that is very likely, as there are only about 8 Huey's in the air force, so all of them could very well have read it, the guy said it was like a Bible to them. Apparently Mason, the Author gets together for areunion dinner with Col. Hal Moore for the LZ Xray battle in We were Soldiers movie, he was involed in some of those lifts. Would be awesome to sit and chat with the men who were there. |
| I think it's a good book, read it a few times, gives a pretty good grasp on what it takes to fly a helo. His wife Patience is a a hoot, used to work on her car back in the 80's while he was incarcerated at Eglin (IIRC), for MJ trafficking. Never got the opportunity to meet him personally. Might just have to pull his book back out and give it another read. |
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Good to see a few agree with me, I have always loved choppers and the Huey, well, I don't know of any other chopper which has quite the personality of the good ol Huey. Robert's website has some very cool entries on the guest book area as well, lot of current and past pilots and other people have put down some nice words for him. |
+1. Enjoyed it very much. For me it was a 'read all'. Meaning I couldn't put it down. Some good Vietnam novels are written by Leonard B. Scott. My early 1980's ROTC CSM, served with him in Vietnam. |
My dad was a Medivac Crew Chief on a Huey in Vietnam. He said a few of his pilots like to dip the skids into rice patties for shits and grins. I've never heard of the book, and will scoop it up. I think the Huey is THE iconic helicopter. I love those things. |
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As mentioned earlier, you wont be sorry, it is an awesome book. I mentioned to the NZ Heuy crew about the part in the book where the IP would run a Huey up, on the ground, cut power, pick it up, do a 360 peddel turn and then put it on the ground again, all with no power, just those big old high inertia blades. Or the cutting of small tree branches. I'm gonna break out my old Huey model. |
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Good book. Favorite part was when he described making their own LZs in the jungle canopy by using the chopper blades. IIRC, he said that the blades could be used to chop back vines and foliage up to an inch thick. Not the best practice, but combat flying at its best. |
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I loved the book! You always hear what or see what it was like for the grunts without even thinking about the pilots and their risk. I learned a lot about the Huey,(My favorite helicopter) Theres just something about that Thugatta-Thugatta they make flying around. That chapter where he talked about them being sent to the wrong LZ and the first and third chopper never lifted off when he did(He was the middle one) and how the last chopper had to be flown back by the sole survivor in the bird, the crew chief who also gravely wounded and how a couple hours later the the first bird was still there when he flew over it to the right LZ it was still running at full throttle it's entire crew dead and the infantry on the ground finally figured out how to shut down the engines by the next trip over he made really tugged at the heart strings. Theres a Vietnam Huey Pilot that worked at the local gunshop, I asked him if he had seen we were soldiers. He said "I have no particular need to watch what i lived." His eyes tearing up as he said it. |