Undaunted Valor: An Assault Helicopter Unit in Vietnam

I don’t normally write book reviews but this book is excellent, superbly written. If you want to know what it’s like to fly helicopters in Vietnam buy this book. I’ve already purchased matt’s other two books.

alles gut.

This book is an excellent factual narrative about real soldiers in a real war and yet maintains a very readable and at just the right times humorous tone. It is less about the strategy and technology of warfare and more about the camaraderie that is so unique to the military. The helicopter was used extensively and in myriad ways during the Vietnam war. The heroic men piloting their aircraft in ways never beforehand imagined made this war different from all other wars. The author’s ability to detail events that occurred 50 years ago is amazing. If you wish to have a better understanding of how this all went down then get this book and read it…you wouldn’t be disappointed!

I was a helicopter pilot during those years in RVN. My experience was so terribly different that at times I had a hard time believing we were at the same vicinity. If you have interest in that time in history there are not a lot of books written by real pilots so it does have some value. I just did not relate a lot of the time and found the author whinny and self serving a lot of the time.

While the category is fiction, in reality this is a detailed history of the author's 18 months as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. It is very detailed, starting out with training and moving on to his deployment. He places the reader in the chopper mission after mission. He describes the other pilots in his unit and makes the book a very interesting read. He identifies a few of the truly incompetent senior officers throughout the book. If you have any interest in helicopter units in Vietnam, this is the book for you. My only complaint is that at the end of his tour, the books ends kind of abruptly. Since the author became a career soldier, I would have been interested in a more detailed finish, but I am guessing it would not have been able to be a work of fiction. It is well written and very technically sound and accurate.