Chickenhawk [Paperback]

Robert Mason (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 29, 2005

More than half a million copies of Chickenhawk have been sold since it was first published in 1983. Now with a new afterword by the author and photographs taken by him during the conflict, this straight-from-the-shoulder account tells the electrifying truth about the helicopter war in Vietnam. This is Robert Mason’s astounding personal story of men at war. A veteran of more than one thousand combat missions, Mason gives staggering descriptions that cut to the heart of the combat experience: the fear and belligerence, the quiet insights and raging madness, the lasting friendships and sudden death—the extreme emotions of a "chickenhawk" in constant danger.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Mason’s gripping memoir ... proves again that reality is more interesting, and often more terrifying, than fiction. -- Los Angeles Times

Very simply the best book so far out of Vietnam. -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch

[Chickenhawk]’s vertical plunge into the thickets of madness will stun readers. -- Time

About the Author

Robert Mason enlisted in the army in 1964 and flew more than 1,000 helicopter combat missions before being discharged in 1968.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books; Reissue edition (March 29, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143035711
• ISBN-13: 978-0143035718
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (196 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,185 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #32 in Books > History > Military > Aviation
  • #36 in Books > History > Asia > Vietnam > Vietnam War

More About the Author

Robert Mason was born in Plainfield, NJ in March 1942 and moved to DelRay Beach, FL as a small child. He grew upon a chicken farm, dreaming of flying, earned his fixed wing pilot's license in high school, dropped out of the University of Florida after two years and joined the Army to learn to fly helicopters. He spent a 1965-66 in Vietnam flying a Huey slick in B, 229, 1st Cav and the 48th Aviation Co. He wrote his best selling memoir, Chickenhawk, seventeen years later. Weapon, a novel about a military robot who wouldn't obey orders followed, then Chickenhawk: Back in the World, about the difficulties he faced after the war, and Solo, a sequel to Weapon in which Solo moves to NYC, thinking he will fit in.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 84 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The helicopter pilot's bible November 19, 2001

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

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.

76 of 80 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars First of the Helicopter Books May 23, 2002

By Mike

Format:Paperback

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.

56 of 58 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Woes of a wobbly-one. August 13, 2006

By Ejner Fulsang

Format:Paperback

I recently gave away my copy of this marvelous book to my son. It wasn't too long before I went into withdrawal and bought myself another copy. Bob Mason is a truly honest man, which is not to say that he never lied, cheated, or stole, but that he is one of those rare individuals who can look at himself in the mirror and see himself as he really is, warts and all. That takes an admirable form of courage that most of us don't have. I couldn't do a memoir the way he did. I had to resort to an alter-ego in my own book. I won't claim more warts than Bob, but the ones I have I don't like.

Like Bob, I got into the Army Warrant Officer Helicopter Flight Program after high school in 1967. I was a typical wobbly-one, long on enthusiasm for flying, short on brains, experience, maturity, character, morals, and wisdom. Hey, I was only nineteen! But I sure liked to fly, especially choppers, especially Bell Helicopter's masterpiece, the UH-1 `Huey.' Bob was just coming home from Vietnam the year before I enlisted. He was one of the pioneers of the airmobile concept, assigned to the 1st Cav and traveling to Vietnam by boat with the unit's choppers lashed to the deck. I was appalled at the initial treatment he and the other warrant officers received once they arrived in country. They had to dig their own bunkers. Warrant officers are `supposed' to be officers, rating the respect and privileges of commissioned officers. Actually the commissioned officers used to joke that a warrant officer was just a spec-four with a club card. Still I had to admit that when a unit is freshly arrived in a combat zone, getting shelter up quickly is essential, and I would hate to have been killed in a mortar attack that night because I was too proud to fill sand bags that day.

The real appeal of the book is the white-knuckle flying action scenes. They were often times hair-raising nightmares, and the crews were scared to death, but some how they got the job done anyway--hence, the name of the book, `Chickenhawk.' Warrant officers were funny that way--no mission was impossible. Commissioned pilots tended to fall back on the regulations when things got rough. They had college degrees and were smarter than we were. They tended to live longer too. There were exceptions in both cases, but what I said was generally true in Army aviation.

I was saddened by the fall from grace that Bob experienced when he returned stateside. He had spent a year comporting himself bravely, and now he was haunted by that same bravery. I bought and read his second book, curious I guess, at just how far his downward spiral would take him. And he sank pretty far before he finally autorotated his life to a safe landing. I finally concluded that he was one of those guys who should have stayed in combat, extending his tour 12 months at a time, taking a month off in between to visit his wife in Honolulu. That was where he was at his best--impossible missions, tracers flying everywhere, too dark to see, too dangerous to turn on the lights, breaking every flight safety regulation imaginable, and then getting chewed out by the old man while he was pinning another air medal on his chest. Of course if Bob had done that, we probably wouldn't be reading his fine books today.

--Ejner Fulsang, author of "A Knavish Piece of Work," www.AarhusPublishing.com