A helicopter pilot describes his experiences in country during the Vietnam War, discussing the gross incompetence in the chain of command, top-secret excursions into neutral Laos, routine recovery missions, and more.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Mains, a helicopter pilot for a year in Vietnam, has written a fast-paced memoir with some entertainment value but little of the darkness and complexity of the better Vietnam books. Organized around Mains's innocuous letters home in 1968 and 1969, this book depicts raucous, prank-filled camaraderie on the ground, thrills and terror in the air and general detachment from the guts of the war. In his year, Mains goes from a gung-ho "new guy" to a time-serving survivor. Though he sometimes succumbs to cliches, Mains's best passages describe the art of flying, traversing the thin line between a successful mission and disaster. One routine flight turns into a waking nightmare as Mains's aircraft is virtually becalmed, hovering at 75 feet and under enemy fire. Self-described as young and apolitical, Mains hardly reflects on the ugliness and cost of the war until the end of his tour: he evacuates a village after battle, and, given a grunt's-eye view, sees the grotesque, partially nude bodies of the Vietnamese dead. He also confronts tragedy, picking up dead soldiers ambushed by their fellows, and transporting a soldier who accidentally shot his best friend. But he spends even more space detailing a rowdy R&R trip to Bangkok in which he wound up being chased by a Thai prostitute wielding his Buck knife. (June) no hard copy
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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More About the Author
A native of Southern California, Randolph Mains, at 22 years old, flew 1042 combat hours during his one-year tour in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, twenty-seven Air Medals and the Bronze Star Medal.
His 13,000 hour, forty-three-year aviation career has taken him to the Australian Outback where he lived on a 1632-square-mile cattle ranch and herded cattle by helicopter and delivered meat by small fixed wing aircraft to Aboriginal settlements in the Northern Territory. He has flown seismic survey and heli-rig work over the jungles of Papua New Guinea. He was a senior instructor pilot for Bell Helicopter International in Iran for two-and-a-half years prior to the revolution and managed to flee the country on the last commercial charter flight out of Iran.
Two weeks later, in February 1979, he began his EMS career flying on the Houston Life Flight program where he flew for one year. In 1980, his company sent him to San Diego to set up University of California San Diego's Life Flight program where he flew for five years.
While flying in San Diego, he acquired his California Emergency Medical Technician certification after seeing a need for an extra pair of hands at the accident scenes to which he flew the medical teams.
In 1982, Mains was selected to receive the first annual Golden Hour Award, recognizing him for his contributions to furthering the helicopter air ambulance concept in America.
In May, 1984, while working full-time as a Life Flight pilot at the hospital, he graduated from San Diego State University, earning a degree in Journalism and a minor in English Creative Writing.
In November, 1984, he was asked to join the faculty of the American Society of Hospital Based Emergency Aeromedical Services to speak on a panel of EMS pilots during the annual convention held in New Orleans.
A month later he left EMS flying to take a job in the Middle Eastern country of Oman, where he was hired as a Major in the Royal Oman Police Air Wing and worked for thirteen years.
Mains currently works for Abu Dhabi Aviation in the United Arab Emirates flying men and equipment to offshore oil fields in the Arabian Gulf. He is also a type rating instructor and type rating flight examiner training and examining pilots for his company.
When not in the air, Mains works as a flight simulator instructor and flight simulator examiner in the Bell 412 flight simulator based in Dubai.
Mains' second book, Dear Mom I'm Alive...Letters Home from Blackwidow 25, first published in 1992 by Avon Books and now in it's second edition, has been optioned for a movie and is currently in script development. For updates on the movie please visit www.500sheetsproductions.com.
Mains' third book entitled Journey to the Golden Hour is the much awaited sequel to Dear Mom I'm Alive. Journey is non-fiction book detailing the incredible journey Mains took after leaving the Army 14-months after serving in Vietnam, to become a pioneer in air ambulance helicopter pilot in what has become today the most dangerous job in America.
When Mains is not flying overseas, he lives in Canada with his wife, Kaye.
For updates on future books written by Randolph P. Mains please visit his website at: www.randymains.com.
His 13,000 hour, forty-three-year aviation career has taken him to the Australian Outback where he lived on a 1632-square-mile cattle ranch and herded cattle by helicopter and delivered meat by small fixed wing aircraft to Aboriginal settlements in the Northern Territory. He has flown seismic survey and heli-rig work over the jungles of Papua New Guinea. He was a senior instructor pilot for Bell Helicopter International in Iran for two-and-a-half years prior to the revolution and managed to flee the country on the last commercial charter flight out of Iran.
Two weeks later, in February 1979, he began his EMS career flying on the Houston Life Flight program where he flew for one year. In 1980, his company sent him to San Diego to set up University of California San Diego's Life Flight program where he flew for five years.
While flying in San Diego, he acquired his California Emergency Medical Technician certification after seeing a need for an extra pair of hands at the accident scenes to which he flew the medical teams.
In 1982, Mains was selected to receive the first annual Golden Hour Award, recognizing him for his contributions to furthering the helicopter air ambulance concept in America.
In May, 1984, while working full-time as a Life Flight pilot at the hospital, he graduated from San Diego State University, earning a degree in Journalism and a minor in English Creative Writing.
In November, 1984, he was asked to join the faculty of the American Society of Hospital Based Emergency Aeromedical Services to speak on a panel of EMS pilots during the annual convention held in New Orleans.
A month later he left EMS flying to take a job in the Middle Eastern country of Oman, where he was hired as a Major in the Royal Oman Police Air Wing and worked for thirteen years.
Mains currently works for Abu Dhabi Aviation in the United Arab Emirates flying men and equipment to offshore oil fields in the Arabian Gulf. He is also a type rating instructor and type rating flight examiner training and examining pilots for his company.
When not in the air, Mains works as a flight simulator instructor and flight simulator examiner in the Bell 412 flight simulator based in Dubai.
Mains' second book, Dear Mom I'm Alive...Letters Home from Blackwidow 25, first published in 1992 by Avon Books and now in it's second edition, has been optioned for a movie and is currently in script development. For updates on the movie please visit www.500sheetsproductions.com.
Mains' third book entitled Journey to the Golden Hour is the much awaited sequel to Dear Mom I'm Alive. Journey is non-fiction book detailing the incredible journey Mains took after leaving the Army 14-months after serving in Vietnam, to become a pioneer in air ambulance helicopter pilot in what has become today the most dangerous job in America.
When Mains is not flying overseas, he lives in Canada with his wife, Kaye.
For updates on future books written by Randolph P. Mains please visit his website at: www.randymains.com.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting Insight Into Those Times,
By MarcKirk "SurfGramps" (El Segundo, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Dear Mom, I'm Alive (Paperback)
This is a well written account of one young man's time in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot. The one-year stint begins with him as the FNG (****ing New Guy) and traces his maturing process during the chaos of that war. The mission descriptions are particularly interesting and sometimes hair-raising. There is some interesting insight into how things operated in the military in those crazy conditions.
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