Chickenhawk

I read this as a young pilot on the verge of starting a career flying military helicopters. It should have deterred me for life. Robert Mason tells of the relentless courage and heroism amidst the madness of the Vietnam War. The final pages are the most shocking I have ever read in a book. Tim Peake

An impressive 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 he flew over 1,000 combat missions between August 1965 and July 1966. In Chickenhawk, Robert Mason provides us with a devastating bird's-eye view of this war in all its horror. He experiences the accelerated terror, the increasingly desperate courage of a man who 'plays the role of a hero long after he realizes that behavior in war is insane,' says the New York Times. 'And we cannot help but identify with it.'

Chickenhawk contains the most vivid, astonishingly intense descriptions of flying ever written. It is a devastating account of men at war, of courage and cowardice, boredom and excitement, lasting friendship and sudden death. It is not a book for the faint of heart, but its powerful message will linger long after the last page is turned.