A vivid memoir of the Vietnam War by a crew chief who flew on hundreds of flights during his tour.

During Vietnam, the basic role of the USMC gunship squadrons was to protect the transport helicopters during medevac missions, troop insertions and extractions, resupply missions, and supporting the Marines on the ground during operations and patrols. Basically, whenever the Marines or South Vietnam friendlies got in trouble the gunships were dispatched to assist them.

Shortly after arriving in Vietnam—and after only a month as a gunner aboard a Huey gunship—Peter Greene and several other new Marines were moved to the Crew Chief’s position. They would fly practically every day, with different flight crews, for the next year.

In this vivid memoir he recalls many of those missions, including providing gunship support for MACV-SOG in and around I Corps area, working with Marine Recon, and undertaking frequent, perilous resupply and medevac and medevac support missions.

• Cover page
• Title page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• 1 My Background
• 2 Enlistment and USMC Boot Camp
• 3 Off to War
• 4 Culture Shock
• 5 A Brief History of VMO-6
• 6 Time to Start Flying
• 7 Land Shark
• 8 Support for SOG
• 9 The Hill Battles at Khe Sanh
• 10 CH-46 Downed
• 11 A Hard Day’s Night
• 12 Couldn’t Find the Bullet Hole
• 13 Night Standby
• 14 Last Missions from Ky Ha
• 15 The Move to Phu Bai
• 16 Quang Tri Air Base
• 17 Young Vietnamese Girl
• 18 Technical Problems
• 19 The Sniffer
• 20 Mortar Attack
• 21 Con Thien Overrun
• 22 Enemy in the Open
• 23 No Joy
• 24 SOG Team in Trouble
• 25 Gio Linh Resupply
• 26 Leaving Vietnam
• 27 Back Home in the States
• 28 Reunions and Reflections
• Citations