This book has been percolating in my mind for the past 45 years, begging to come out. The stories are based on my experiences in 1969, during the first of my two tours of duty in Vietnam. I wanted to write it as a memoir, but then I would need to include the actual names of the other guys in the story, many of whom are no longer with us. Out of respect to them, and their families, I couldn't do that.
Then it occurred to me I could embellish the tales, change the names, and make it a novel. So no, not EVERYTHING is true, and I borrowed some of the stories from my comrades, but it will all ring true to any pilot who served over there. And it will ring true for the grunts, too, although theirs was a different, much more brutal, war. The Vietnam experience was different for everyone, and was also the same.
There's a love story in there, too, and my wife of 45 years is breathing down my neck making sure I let you know it's all fiction. (She's not looking right now, so I can tell you there's more than just a little in there that's true. Shhh... here she comes again.)
Most Vietnam War novels are about someone who was drafted and fought on the ground. this is about a young Lieutenant who volunteered to go, and ended up flying a small, slow aircraft, the O-2A, over the Ho Chi Minh trail, and about the friends he lost and the personal demons he faced.
This book is the first in the Hamfist Trilogy, which chronicles two flying tours of duty in Vietnam. The first, O-2As in 1969. The second, F-4s in 1972, flying over Hanoi during Operations Linebacker and Linebacker II.
Then it occurred to me I could embellish the tales, change the names, and make it a novel. So no, not EVERYTHING is true, and I borrowed some of the stories from my comrades, but it will all ring true to any pilot who served over there. And it will ring true for the grunts, too, although theirs was a different, much more brutal, war. The Vietnam experience was different for everyone, and was also the same.
There's a love story in there, too, and my wife of 45 years is breathing down my neck making sure I let you know it's all fiction. (She's not looking right now, so I can tell you there's more than just a little in there that's true. Shhh... here she comes again.)
Most Vietnam War novels are about someone who was drafted and fought on the ground. this is about a young Lieutenant who volunteered to go, and ended up flying a small, slow aircraft, the O-2A, over the Ho Chi Minh trail, and about the friends he lost and the personal demons he faced.
This book is the first in the Hamfist Trilogy, which chronicles two flying tours of duty in Vietnam. The first, O-2As in 1969. The second, F-4s in 1972, flying over Hanoi during Operations Linebacker and Linebacker II.