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Gunbird Driver: A Marine Huey Pilot's War in Vietnam (Blue Jacket Bks)

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[[ASIN:1591140196 Gunbird Driver: Gunbird Driver is a remarkable autobiography. Former Marine Corps helicopter pilot, David Ballentine, looks back on his 1966-67 tour of duty in Vietnam, flying the UH-1E (Huey) on a variety of missions, from supporting drops of ground troops into hostile territory, evacuating wounded and dead Marines, to flying high ranking officers around on inspection tours. On one mission, enemy gunfire severs his oil lines and he is forced down. On another, he watches with fascination as a stunningly accurate rocket fired from his ship explodes within a foot of its target-- a luckless man in black-pajamas running for his life through a rice paddy. Lt. Ballentine sees the fellow wobble to his feet and disappear into the underbrush. Ballentine doesn't stop there. He also lays bare the ordinary and wacky details of military life, such as the use of makeshift urinals called "piss tubes" and the hazard of splash-back, "hooch rats" nesting in his helmet, and the stress of finding himself laboring to make small-talk alongside a high-ranking officer inside a crude latrine. Reading this, I often found myself smiling, and occasionally, laughing out loud. This account could not have been authentically written without use of the Marine Corps' incomparable array of four-letter words, and it is not for the faint of heart. No subject is overlooked. Ballentine, who after the war earned a PhD in history, is both sensitive and introspective but understandably proud of his air crewmembers. No macho here. His story is one of a humble young officer's adaptability to the demanding circumstances of war and his emergence as a man. This is a perfect gift for any ex-Marine or anyone, civilian or military, man or woman, who has wondered what it was like to be in combat.

David Ballentine's book brought home to me the reality of the life of a Viet Nam Marine in the mid '60s. The "non-PC" language gives it relevance, and thanks for that. I am amazed at the dedication he and those he wrote about have for the job they did. To go to work with the knowledge that it may end badly made me question every complaint I ever had during my professional life. He says that after one has been the target in a life and death challenge, ordinary life is rather ordinary. If you ever wanted to experience a true "realty show", this is a must read. Thanks, David, for writing this extraordinaty personal history of a true American Hero.

Hollywood tends to portray conflicts by making an icon of the weapon involved. Think of the Colt Peacemaker of the Western gunslinger. Or the Tommy gun of the Thirties gangster. Or the Huey helicopter gunbird that has dominated our vision of American wars starting in Vietnam and continuing right on through this evening's news broadcast. Talk about your icons.
Yet until now not a lot has been written about the UH-1E, the Bell helcopter with its Lycoming engine and with its side-mounted M-60 machine guns and its nose-aimed rockets. Less still is known about the people who wielded them for the first time as a serious weapon of war in Vietnam. Author David A. Ballentine's book is noteworth because it can be read on several levels. it is a memoir to be sure, but unlike the standard issue series of anecdotes that come from military retirees. What it is, instead, is a back porch conversation, with plenty of saltiness and lots of appropriate expletives such as what one might get listening to the man himself.
The story line covers Ballentine's time as a young Marine lieutenant pilot flying a Huey with an observation squadron during 1966-1967, a year before the Tet Offensive. The book is an easy read for the ordinary civilian despite the military acronyms and technical idiosyncrasies of the Huey as a piece of machinery. Ballentine gives the aircraft its own personality, one with plenty of foibles and flaws, but also with a certain workmanlike solidness that makes both machine and the men it carried understandable and admirable.
The more military oriented reader can find plenty of action and adventure to his taste. Ballentine and his unit provided suppressing fire when troops went into operations and when they came out again. It covered for medical evacuation helicpoters that took out the casulaties. Counter-fire was a constant hazard and Ballentine's craft caught its share. One of the more interesting facets of this book is that even if you've never ridden in a helicopter, his portrayal of the Huey makes the reader confident he could sit in the second seat and know right where the dials and pedals were located, perhaps even to take the stick if hostile gunfire equired. This is no mean feat of writing.
This is a book worth reading and pondering. Vietnam may have been a long time ago but the story is still going on.
James Srodes, author, Washington, DC

I flew in the sister squadron of VMO-6. My squadron was VMO-2 in Marble Mountain, next to Danang. I was there 66-67 and flew the same missions. This tremendous book tells an inside story of how we felt and how we flew. We all had tremendous training which included being instrument (Instrument Flying Rules) which saved our lives during bad weather. Many of the Army Warrant Officers did not have this training and suffered for it.

I found this book to be extremely refreshing in the way it was presented.
Openly honest and truthful directly from the onset.

The author did a fine job in the telling of his story in that you know it
to be first hand and factual. He made it definitivly easy to follow even
for the layman as far as the military terms.
I found myself feeling as if I was right behind looking over his shoulder
every minute.

Gunbird Driver is a first person narrative of a chopper pilot's experiences in the Vietnam War. If you want to see what life was like as a Marine pilot of a UH-1 Huey armed with machine guns and rockets during the Vietnam War, this is a good place to start. It is not a technical work on the Huey or review of tactics. You'll learn a lot, but this is not a griping, moving book. Ballentine tells it like he sees it. It is very factual, there are plenty of dates, events, combat told in a straight forward manner of way.

That is why this book is ok. The author shows us what he did, saw, and thought. Then he came home, did not miss the war, but missed his buddies. Even good stories need a good narrator to bring it to life. Ballentine shares stories that have elements of humor, sorrow, anger or other ranges of emotions, but it did not connect with me the way Nick Popaditch did in "Once a Marine".

Anyone who has been there, done that, has my sincerest, utmost respect. I concluded this book knowing more about the life of chopper pilots, and think that while Ballentine may be an excellent, brave pilot, this is a only competent book.

My father, Al "Koko" Kohanowich was shot flying combat operations with VMO-6 from Ky-Ha on Feb 23rd, 1966. David Ballantine was the replacement pilot sent when Dad was shipped out. I have spent the past few years researching the history of VMO-6, and this will be a welcome addition to that research. Dad's got a copy now, and I'm ordering one as well.

Good book. Reminds me of my time there. Some of it was good some not.

Marine Col. David Ballentine has done a superb job of "opening up" his phase of the Vietnam War to all readers. He is often a master of understatement and yet his recollections come through with great clarity and detail. He has laid bare his 13 months in the Republic of Vietnam as a UH-1E pilot flying missions throughout the I Corps TAOR (Tactical Area of Operations), which was the northernmost military sector just south of the DMZ and North Vietnam. His work was primarily against a well-trained North Vietnamese Army; one that we all respected. I served with Dave for a year before Vietnam (VMO-1), then went over to RVN with and was assigned to a sister squadron at Marble Mountain (VMO-2) while he went to Ky Ha (VMO-6). His squadron mates in RVN had been my friends. We had many similar missions and experiences during our 13 months flying gunships, medevacs, recon insertions and retractions, tactical air control airborne and occasional VIPs. Many details of those experiences have been lost to me over time. It takes a genius to recall and express in detail the effects of war as seen from within. I can assure the reader that accuracy was not compromised in any way. Even though this was meant to leave a tidbit for his family, Col. Ballentine left me looking forward to more from his pen, computer or pencil. Let's have more, Dave. SAEPE EXPERTUS, SEMPER FIDELIS, FRATRES AETERNI

What struck me about this account of communicating what it was like to be a Marine aviator During the Vietnam War was David Ballentine's amazing recall of minutia to the finest detail of events that occurred over 40 years ago! Stationed in "Ky Ha". I corps, South Vietnam, Ballentine discussed squadron life during the 1966-1967 period of the war prior to the January, 1968 "Tet Offensive". At this juncture of the war, most Americans felt that the war was winnable. Chickenhawk Despite his air group being assigned to the northernmost military subdivision of South Vietnam, the reader encounters the intricacies of "Mag-36", the air group that Ballentine was attached, as well as missions that were flown at Khe Sanh, the DMZ (the "Demilitarized Zone" which separated hostile North Vietnam from U.S. supported South Vietnam), the area west of Phu Bai, and even covertly into Laos.

Ballentine instructs the reader that the type of helicopter flown in Vietnam was a model made by a company called "Bell", and it's powerful 1,00 horse power turbine engine was provided by "Lycoming." Pucker Factor 10: Memoir of A U.S. Army Helicopter Pilot in Vietnam There were 3 models of the helicopter he flew, the "UH-1" a/k/a the "Huey". There was the "D" and "B" model, as well as the "E". The "D" is still in use today, and was mainly used for troop lift. The "B" model was used as a gunship for land use, and the "E' model was used strictly by Marines out at sea. Price of Exit Ballentine teaches the reader that there are many veterans still alive today thanks to the well constructed and highly crash survivable cabins of these versatile Hueys. The Huey was duel controlled, with the pilot always sitting on the right, and the copilot on the left. In terms of firepower, this was an awesome machine. With the knowledge that there were 2 "M-60's on each side's cabin door for the crew chief and door gunner, as well as 2 front mounted "M-60" for the pilot and copilot, it a true mystery as to how the NVA was able to persevere against this area weapon. You had a total of 6 "M-60's firing at one time pumping out 500-600 rounds a minute!

The Huey also carried either 7 or 19 rockets , one rocket pod for each side of the craft. The Huey carried enough fuel for up to 2 hours of flight, and "ferry tanks" could be added in the cabin to extend range and flying time. This book is deep and rich in anecdotes about missions and combat assaults Ballentine was involved in. Taking Fire: The True Story of a Decorated Chopper Pilot The most common missions detailed in this book involved flying armed escort for troop insertion and extraction from battlefields, medical evacuation and pickup of wounded, and escorting ground convoys. Low Level Hell Ballentine's unit was also involved with small unit insertion and extraction of special recon teams ("Special Forces" groups called "S.O.G. i.e. "Studies and Observation Groups"), aerial reconnaissance of the enemy, and "V.I.P. Hauling" i.e. transporting "big wigs" i.e. generals, entertainers, politicians, etc.

Other missions Ballentine flew were "TAC" (tactical air control) of jet attack aircraft as well as overall coordination of major aviation operations, missions involving spotting the enemy and adjusting outgoing artillery gunfire for both land and naval offshore units, resupply of small units out in the bush in inaccessible by land outposts, test flights, and finally administrative runs for the delivery and pickup of people, aircraft parts and supplies. Snake Pilot: Flying the Cobra Attack Helicopter in Vietnam What I enjoyed most about this book were the rare stories that no textbook about the Vietnam War will ever tell, such as how Ballentine and his men made the best of a bad situation in relieving themselves of toiletry functions without modern Western lavatory facilities in remote jungle and hill site outposts, the rat that was eating Ballentine and his men's shoelaces (he thought at first it was a practical joke!) and finally the Viet Cong "runner" who shot at Ballentine's Huey and ran away and survived, despite all of the pursuing Huey's 6 "M-60's" and rockets being fired at him!

Also discussed is the heartwarming obligation one Marine helicopter crew had to another to ensure pickup and retrieval if another went down. There are many more many more of these quaint stories laced amongst campaigns, rescues, combat assaults, and more! Maverick I enjoyed this book so much that I put it in my pile labeled "to be reread". I am 100% sure, if you have any interest in America's war in Vietnam, that you will feel the same about "Gunbird Driver". Tremendous story! Good job, Mr. Ballentine!