Chickenhawk

by Robert Mason

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140072187
• ISBN13: 9780140072181
• Release Date: September 1984
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.0" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

First of the Helicopter Books

Back in the late 80's, Robert Mason's "Chickenhawk" appeared on bookshelves. Mason's personal story of a helicopter pilot in Vietnam was the first of it's kind and has since spawned a number of personal helicopter stories, and they all owe the market being opened by Robert Mason. I was still in high-school when the book out and I wanted very much to fly helicopters for the US Army at the time. After reading this book I was not sure what to do, I was scared at the thought of being shot down in battle, but also saw the pride in what the helicopters pilots had done in Vietnam. This was also the first book I recommended to my father to read, a two tour veteran of Vietnam himself. I have gone back and reread "Chickenhawk" at least 4 times over the years and it still holds up so well, and I still feel like someone hit me in the stomach everytime I get to the end and read those last few lines.

The helicopter pilot's bible

Being a helicopter pilot myself for the past 6 years, this book has always moved me deeply, thinking about those men, trying to maintain some sort of sanity in a crazy situation. I have had the unfortunate luck, of evacuating wounded soldiers, from a war which is still controversial in my country, but I never faced the kind of situations that Mason discribes in the book, and I have always wandered how they did it, knowing that every morning and evry mission could spell sudden death, from the enemy, or worse, by your commander's stupidity.I think it's a book about bravery, about how these helicopter pilots in Vietnam were willing to risk their lives every day for their fellow soldiers. I believe that flying into combat, surviving it, seeing what might happen if it wasn't your lucky day, then doing it again and again and again, takes a special kind of character. Character shown by Mason.I have read many war books, some about Vietnam, some not. My country is (unfortunately) filled with veterans, including my entire family (my father was also a pilot and my brother was in the special forces, we've all been through combat). I think this book is special in the way it touches you intimately, making you feel, just as if you were hearing the story from the author in person. This is not about victory or defeat, this is about something else, and to know what this thing is you must read the book and look inside to see the impact it has on you.

Learn to fly! Learn to live!

Robert Mason just wanted to fly helicopters - and this terrific book puts you so closely into his mind as he learns to fly that you feel as though you could fly one too. Sadly, he paid a high price for his love of flying. This is a great and moving story of how one man was forever altered by Vietnam.Rather than trying to make a statement about the war, Mason sets out to tell his own story. He does so with such honesty that you end the book feeling as irrevocably changed by events as he was. You share his growing panic and trauma as he comes to the end of his tour in Vietnam, and you share his guilt and bewilderment as he tries to cope with living in a peace-demonstrating, hippie-torn America. When you re-read the book - as you induitably will - you'll notice Robert Masons' compassion and humour, his sense of camaraderie, the combination of bravery and reluctance that make him and his comrades 'chickenhawks'.