Price of Exit: A True Story of Helicopter Pilots in Vietnam

Reading about the useless sacrifice of brave helicopter pilots during the later years of the Vietnam warwill again revive the anger that many experienced when it became clear we had been betrayed by atleast two American Presidents, Johnson and Nixon. Both knew that the Vietnam war was not winnableyet they were willing to continue to send young pilots to their death, supporting troops in the field,for personal political gain.Especially tragic was the invasion of Laos, where only ARVN troops were inserted and immediately fled, surrenderedor were wiped out by the NVA, necessitating dangerous flights to rescue them, forcing pilots to experiencethe full fury of entrenched NVA anti-aircraft fire. Not only did these pilots fly knowing that they faced certain death, theywould repeatedly fly even after their helicopters were nearly shot out of the sky. By Russian and Chinese suppliedweaponry.We were fighting the wrong enemies: the bombing campaigns should have been over Beijing and Moscow,as it should be now instead of in Afghanistan. Vietnam, like Korea and Afghanistan, are proxy wars; the realfoe was and is China. Despite our military assistance to China during WWII to help it fend off invasion by Japan,the Chinese have returned that American effort with deceit, betrayal and armed hostility at every opportunity.The newer generation of helicopter and pilots face the same undeniable truth as did those of the Vietnam era.A lucky bullet from an AK47 or even a near miss from an exploding RPG can send a helicopter into a deathspiral very quickly. To hover over a hot Landing Zone (LZ) in a helicopter is more akin to being a clown target ina carnival booth where for 25 cents you get shot at five times rather than a sound military action.The brave pilots in Vietnam repeatedly risked their lives to perform extractions, not for their country which hadknowingly abandoned them, but for their fellow combatants, who in the end were all that mattered. It is such a tellingpicture of American abandonment and futility in Vietnam that the last vestige of American military might was a helicopterlifting off from the soon-to-be over run American embassy in Saigon.

Outstanding book. Reading it brought pack old feelings of that time, especially the part relating the conflict between Lt. Col. Peachey and Major Bunting. Peachey was an idiot. To use an expression of those times Peachey was a "lifer" in the most pejorative sense of the word. One who cares only about his career and certainly not the lives of his men or the accomplishment of the mission through the employment of smart tactics.Peachey should have been captured by the NVA when his aircraft was shot down.Major Bunting displayed leadership of the highest degree, that leadership which inspired the loyalty of his men. To not have followed him back to LZ Brown would have been unthinkable. As it happened the Blue Stars did not lose one aircraft. Marshall was lucky to get his transfer to the 163rd just before Lam Son 719 started. I missed Lam Son 719 by the skin of my teeth. There is an element of guilt there a large element knowing that so many good men were lost in that operation for insignificant results and a war that was lost before it started. I am proud to have been an Army Aviator and Lam Son 719 showed Army Aviators from company commander on down at their very best under the worst conditions. I highly recommend this book.

we did some crazy things so we earned that reputation. If some stupid commander was stupid enough to order us to do something stupid we were stupid enough to do it just to show him exactly how stupid he was. That's a lot of stupid. I read a lot of books written by people who were "there", where ever there may be, about combat tours in all wars. This book bothered me in that none of it had to happen. Not one person had to die, be wounded, end up missing or suffer psychologically.I flew my tour as a slick pilot, my choice, a few years before Mr. Marshall did his time. Unless you were in the same place at the same time you saw a different war and my time ended just after Thanksgiving of 1967. The war was over by the time I left. This was confirmed years later in interviews with the North Vietnamese political and military leaders. They knew they had lost in 1968 but decided to try one desperate attempt to salvage the war be attacking the whole length of South Vietnam during the truce of Tet, holding nothing in reserve. Despite some initial success due to the surprise they lost miserably. Our military struck back so hard the Viet Cong were never again a significant force. Back home the news media made it seem as if we were the losers. Walter Cronkite, voted the "Most trusted man in America" and most watched evening news anchor declared that that our government had obviously lied to us and North Vienam wasn't beaten. War protests, by Hollywood and others, increased dramatically and the North Vietnamese leaders decided to wait and see if enough political pressure could be brought to bear on our government and force them to concede. That's exactly what happened. At the time of Tet 68 somewhere between 18 and 19 thousand Americans had died in Vietnam, too high a number I know, but after Tet another 40 thousand died with unkown numbers of Vietnames deaths not to mention all the wounded. Today those protesters like to brag about how they ended the war but fail to take the blame for all the unnecessary casualties.This book is as professionally written as any I have ever read, fiction or not. It covers helicopter combat flying across the DMZ and missions into Laos from the view of a pilot that flew OH-58 scouts and slicks, two entirelly different jobs. Later he flew for a VIP unit so you will get to see the war from three different viewpoints.

My original review was turned down for being a little too 'political'. This time I will just say it is a fascinating read but one cannot help but feel depressed at the terrible loss of life in the helicopters by bad commanders. It is a scary true story.

First Class Helicopter Warfare in Vietnam.Gives a good account of himself and all of the other tragic deaths of helicopter crews in this conflict.Well worth buying if you like history and helicopter aviation.

Good read.

ok

very interesting book