Vietnam Air Cav pilot's story....outstanding book

14 November 2016, 19:53

1) To the Limit by Tom A. Johnson 2006 about 375 pages

***** Five Stars

An absolutely outstanding read which grabs you from the first chapter. Heroics efforts and bravery, which mostly went unnoticed, were done daily. Highest recommendation.

quote:
The cost of the Vietnam War was very high. Out of 2,594,000 persons who served in South VN, 58,169 died. Helicopter air crews bore a disproportionately heavy burden. For all military occupation specialities, including helicopter aircrews, the kill ration was 1 to 45; for helicopter pilots in VN the ratio was an alarming 1 to 18. By the end of the war, 2,197 helicopter pilots out of approx. 40,000 either died or were listed as missing in action. Another 2,274 crew chiefs and gunners died alongside the pilots.

At the height of the war, many individual Rotary Wing Classes suffered even heavier losses than that of the average helicopter crew. I graduated 16th of 286 men in Warrant Officer Rotary Wing Aviation Class 67-5. In the 12 months after we received our Army aviator wings at Fort Rucker, Ala., 1 out of every 13 of us died in South VN.

Of those who died, the average time in country was 165 days and the average age was 23.11 years.

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02 December 2016, 02:37

MJines

Ordered this book at your suggestion and just finished it. Very good book. Amazing to think of how young most of those folks were. Some pretty scary stuff for young twenty year olds . . . like the mission into Laos and the extraction of the LRRPs.

02 December 2016, 04:45

Gatogordo

Mike:

Glad you enjoyed it. I've ordered several more with similar themes but the only one I've read so far is "Rattler One-Seven" by Chuck Gross. It was not nearly the book that this one was. Not bad, but I'd waver between 2 1/2 and 3 Stars. Still, many heroic efforts in it.

02 December 2016, 05:32

MJines

What about Chickenhawk, I have heard that it is supposed to be the leading book on the helecopter pilots in Vietnam?

02 December 2016, 18:40

Heeler75

quote:
Originally posted by MJines:
What about Chickenhawk, I have heard that it is supposed to be the leading book on the helecopter pilots in Vietnam?

Mike,
I read that one in high school many moons ago. From what I remember it was a good read.

03 December 2016, 05:03

Gatogordo

quote:
Originally posted by MJines:
What about Chickenhawk, I have heard that it is supposed to be the leading book on the helecopter pilots in Vietnam?

Just ordered a copy. Thanks for tip.