Chickenhawk - Softcover

Mason, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143035711 ISBN 13: 9780143035718

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2005

Synopsis

A true, bestselling story from the battlefield that faithfully portrays the horror, the madness, and the trauma of the Vietnam War
 
More than half a million copies of Chickenhawk have been sold since it was first published in 1983. Now with a new afterword by the author and photographs taken by him during the conflict, this straight-from-the-shoulder account tells the electrifying truth about the helicopter war in Vietnam. This is Robert Mason’s astounding personal story of men at war. A veteran of more than one thousand combat missions, Mason gives staggering descriptions that cut to the heart of the combat experience: the fear and belligerence, the quiet insights and raging madness, the lasting friendships and sudden death—the extreme emotions of a "chickenhawk" in constant danger.

"Very simply the best book so far about Vietnam." -St. Louis Post-Dispatch

About this title

About the Author:

Robert Mason was born in 1942 and grew up on farms in New Jersey and Florida. His boyhood dream of becoming a pilot was finally realized when he earned his private pilot's license prior to his graduation from high school. After studying at the University of Florida from 1960 to 1962 and then working at a variety of jobs for the next two years, he enlisted in the army in 1963. He flew more than 1,000 helicopter combat missions in Vietnam before being discharged in 1968. He is now best-known as the author of Chickenhawk, universally regarded as one of the best books on the Vietnam war and a classic memoir of soldiering.

From AudioFile:

This conversational and personal history of a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War has a narrator who is totally into the spirit of the story. Lots of earthy conversations and conflicts provide ample opportunity for Ganser's particular talent--characterization with vitality. However, he does not annoy with overacting, and he comfortably switches to informative prose. Lots of technical details about these "air ships" and their place in 1960s' warfare are mixed in, and the combination of styles creates the narrative drive of this military memoir. The performance ofChickenhawk, bringing together men and war, is so frank in places that one often feels vicarious involvement. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0143035711
• ISBN 13: 9780143035718
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 512