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Traces the development of helicopters in the Marine Corps from 1962 to 1973. Portrays accurately the difficulties faced and the obstacles conquered by the men who developed helicopters in the Marine Corps. Over 100 figures, maps, photos, and tables.
This history traces the development of helicopters in the Marine Corps from 1962 to 1973 and is the second in a series of two volumes which between them cover the story of Marines and helicopters from 1946 to the present. In the period covered by this volume, the Marines at last acquired helicopters fully capable of carrying out an amphibious vertical assault, and they further elaborated their helicopter doctrines and tactics. In the Vietnam war, pilots and machines met and surmounted the test of actual combat. The documentary basis for this monograph was primarily the official records of the Marine Corps and Navy Department, but considerable use was made of interviews and correspondence with key individuals involved in all phases of helicopter development. One of the most pervasive characteristics of man is hindsight. It masquerades under many guises: Mon­ day morning quarterbacking, second guessing, and historical writing. When viewed through time, the past becomes distorted. Problems seem simpler, the choices more clear, and the conditions less complex than those of the present. The men who played a part become more heroic or more villainous than they were in life. This volume is an attempt to portray accurately the difficulties faced and the obstacles conquered by the men who developed helicopters in the Marine Corps, so that the Marines of today and the future may meet the challenges of their own times with the same dedication as their predecessors. The men who developed helicopters in the Marine Corps had nothing more to rely on than their knowledge of what had preceded them, intelligence liberally used, and both mental and physical courage. The present-day Marine will be well served if he applies nothing more.
“Action-packed . . . he brings the reader artfully through the fog of war with clarity” (20th Century Aviation Magazine). Vietnam has often been called our “first helicopter war,” and indeed, the US Marine Corps, as well as Army, had to feel its way forward during the initial combats. But by 1967, the combat was raging across South Vietnam, with confrontational battles against the NVA on a scale comparable to the great campaigns of WWII. In 1968, when the Communists launched their mammoth counteroffensive, the Marines were forced to fight on all sides, with the helicopter giving them the additional dimension that proved decisive in repelling the enemy. The author of this book, a Vietnam veteran and Purple Heart recipient who has also worked at the USMC History Division and National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, uses his experiences as a company commander to bring the story to life by weaving personal accounts, after-action reports, and official documents into a compellingly readable narrative of service and sacrifice by Marine pilots and crewmen. The entire story of the war is depicted through the prism of Marine helicopter operations, from the first deployments to support the Army of the Republic of Vietnam against the Viet Cong through the rapid US buildup to stop the North Vietnamese Army, until the final withdrawal from our Embassy. “Superlative research.” —Leatherneck