Chickenhawk - Robert Mason

Bob Mason never wanted to go to war. What he really wanted was to fly a helicopter around Central American disaster zones, plucking dusky maidens out of the tree-tops with dashing aplomb. Unfortunately, he needed to learn how to fly a chopper first, and the US Army kindly agreed to teach him.

Passing through the huge military flying school then based at Fort Rucker, Mason graduated after a few sticky moments and was assigned to the First Helicopter Squadron based at Andrews AFB. The job of '1st Heli' was to fly members of the Senate to safe places during Bad Times and was considered a plumb posting fit only for veteran pilots - so what a freshly minted warrant officer, second class was doing there was a mystery to just about everyone. The Army was more devious than Mason gave them credit for and soon he was plucked from his blissful job and sent to the newly formed 1st Cavalry Regiment. Which was then sent to Vietnam just as everything began to slide from a counter-insurgency style operation to full out war fighting; although ironically enough Vietnam was never officially classed as such. Something that the majority of veterans have trouble believing.

Assigned to the 'Golf Course' (Camp Radcliffe) in the hills, conveniently near where a Foreign Legion patrol had been ambushed and massacred (always a comfortable reminder of your own mortality in a warzone)Robert Mason spent the next few months flying the transport - Slick - version of the Bell H 1 Iroquois, the famed Huey. Unarmed apart from 2 machine guns and decidedly without armour it's no great surprise that he had a few shot out from under him and many more close calls - a mortar round landing not 3 feet from him but not exploding is a case in point.
Unlike with the Brits or many other armed forces in the world, American troops deploy on overseas operations for a full year which generously gives them plenty more opportunities to be killed or maimed. The fact that Mason wasn't and came out physically intact (though slightly fragile) goes some way towards proving just how good a pilot he actually was. He's a good writer as well, delivering stories of longing, danger, friendship and blind terror with the same panache and wit as those from his days as a candidate back at Rucker.

This is a powerful and moving story of what happens when a sense of blissful, invulnerable naivety collides head on with people shooting at you. It's no great surprise that when he had the chance for some leave he got a little unglued, but then most soldiers do given half the chance; and it can't be denied that these are often the funniest recollections of the lot, albeit tinged with some pathos. By the end of it, Mason has really been through the fire. Whether or not he emerged stronger because of it is something that even he admits that he's not sure about.

7 out of 10