PENGUIN Chickenhawk

Brings home what sheltered lives most of us lead and books like this help us realise how lucky we are to live mediocre lives!. I never think I have any right to 'review' a book written by a man who was there and served his ideals and country as so many young Americans did. I watched Vietnam on the news in the 60's as a teenager but perhaps was too young to get what was happening. The student protests added that question and I had a BBC news producer mentoring at art college in 1972 who covered the Paris wind down negotiations.. he said it was pretty hairy even then...The book though is unputdownable and the guys who were doing the job deserved more than was served out.. despite whether the war was right or wrong. .. they didn't know, just like the WW2 RAF crews in Bomber Command vilified for their role in ending a war. Funnily enough it brought back memories of a flight in 1981 over the Mt St Helens devastation the year before. A few guys were running flights in Cessna's from a grass strip nearby and my wife & I decided to take a flight. She backed out when she saw the pilot and made me hand over the car keys and wallet muttering "I may not see you again". Turned out he had flown helicopter gun ships in Vietnam and flew as though he was still there. I, of course, was mightily impressed by his flying as he was quite happy to duck down below the instrument panel to let me take photos over the right hand side... for some reason he preferred flying the right seat rather than the usual left... he just said "tell me if we're going to hit anything!".. on coming back to the strip I said we're landing right on top of another plane taking off which he thought was a laugh, (I did too... but he hadn't seen it)..and when we came round again on the downwind leg for another try we ran out of fuel which he thought was hilarious and cackled all the way in from what looked like an impossible height & direction. .. we made it of course and I thought he was so amazing I based my later own flight training on him... generally telling my instructors that any landing you walked away from was a good landing!.. My wife just shook her head.... so total respect for these guys and Robert Mason for letting us in on his experiences... I do hope he is now OK .

This is the best book I've read about being in Vietnam along with A Rumour of War by Philip Kaputo. Mason writes well and honestly about his tour of duty as a helicopter (Huey) pilot. How guys like Mason coped with this is beyond me. Flying in to landing zones often blind being shot at and seeing things men should never see for a year. It takes a huge toll. I laughed. I cried. I felt gripped with anxiety and fear at some sections of the book. It's very good. I'll not go into detail........ read for your self. I salute you Bob Mason. For your courage. Skill and excellent writing. P.S. Mason's second book Chickenhawk Back In The World about his life after he returned from the war is also well worth reading. You'll get just how badly Vietnam affected him from this book.

Having worked in VietNam, & sat in an old US Huey, this is a first-rate read for me. The author's descriptions of the country are excellent, plus the daily problems of being a pilot on a 'chopper, facing death on highly dangerous missions. I have only marked it down to 4 stars as had previously read Kregg Jorgenson's novels on the war in 'Nam, which somehow just have an edge on this nonetheless well-written book by the author. These were brave men indeed.

This book provides an insight into the full horror of war from one man's perspective and the later consequences of his survived. It's sad to see the same issues are seen time and time from every war and conflict, when will people learn...Five star... Eugene

I had this book many moons ago and found its so gripping that I leant it to a friend, who then lent it to another friend...and it never came back. Remembering how good it was I decided I needed to reread it in my later years, and so I have taken possession of it once more.Mason writes so well and gives a fantastic account of a horrible war. 'Chickenhawk' takes you through a young man's exhilarating journey of insane conflict, and all because he just wanted to fly.Surely one of the greatest accounts of the Vietnam war written from an American's perspective.