Chickenhawk

Robert Mason’s devastating bird’s eye-view of the Vietnam war in all its horror

‘I read this as a young pilot about to embark on a career flying military helicopters. It should have put me off for life. Robert Mason tells a gripping account of the relentless courage and heroism amidst the insanity of the Vietnam war. The final few pages are the most shocking I have read in any book.’ Tim Peake________A stunning book about the right stuff in the wrong war.As a child, Robert Mason dreamed of levitating.As a young man, he dreamed of flying helicopters - and the U.S. Army gave him his chance.They sent him to Vietnam where, between August 1965 and July 1966, he flew more than 1,000 assault missions. In Chickenhawk, Robert Mason gives us a devastating bird’s eye-view of that war in all its horror.He experiences the accelerating terror, the increasingly desperate courage of a man ‘acting out the role of a hero long after he realises that the conduct of the war is insane,’ says the New York Times.‘And we can’t stop ourselves from identifying with it.'CHICKENHAWK contains the most vivid, astoundingly intense descriptions of flying ever written. It is a devastating account of men at war, of courage and cowardice, boredom and exhilaration, lasting friendship and sudden death. It is not a book for weak stomachs, but its powerful message will stay in the memory long after the last page is turned.