Robert Mason - Chickenhawk

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“A hypnotic narrative.”

“Better than any movie about the war.”

“Maybe Vietnam is best seen through a shattered helicopter windshield. Chickenhawk is one bloody, painfully honest, and courageous book.”

“When Mason flies, so does his book.”

“Arresting, lean, cool, grotesque, telling.”

“More than any other writer, Mason has been able to capture the feeling of what it was like to be there.”

Robert Mason was born in 1942 and grew up on farms in New Jersey and Florida. His boyhood dream of becoming a pilot was finally realized when he earned his private pilot’s license prior to his graduation from high school. After studying at the University of Florida from 1960 to 1962 and then working at a variety of jobs for the next two years, he enlisted in the army in 1964. He flew more than 1,000 helicopter combat missions in Vietnam before being discharged in 1968. Mr. Mason is married and the father of one son.

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First published in the United States of America by Viking Penguin Inc. 1983

Published in Penguin Books 1984

This edition published 2005

Copyright © Robert C. Mason, 1983 Afterword: copyright © Robert C. Mason, 2005 All rights reserved

Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint portions of copyrighted material that originally appeared in Newsweek, copyright © Newsweek, Inc., 1965; The New York Times Magazine, copyright © The New York Times Company, 1966; and U.S. News and World Report, copyright © 1964 and 1966 by U.S. News and World Report.

Unless indicated otherwise, photos are by Robert C. Mason

eISBN : 978-1-101-17515-6

1. Mason, Robert, 1942—. 2. Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975—Personal narratives, American. 3. Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975—Aerial operations, American. 4. Helicopter pilots—Biography. 5. United States Army—Warrant officers—Biography. I. Title.

DS559.5.M.704’348 84-440

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