PAPERBACK EDITION

A Marine Corps Helicopter Squadron in Vietnam

Marine Corps helicopter crews and infantrymen found little glory waiting for them in faraway Vietnam. Instead, they found themselves mired in a life-and-death battle with tenacious Sino-Soviet pawns.

Marion Sturkey, a Marine Corps helicopter pilot in Vietnam, combines fascinating detail with grim realism. After-Action-Reports, Unit Diaries, and hundreds of records from the Marine Corps Archives create the outline for his riveting chronology. Onto this framework the author weaves personal accounts from the helicopter crews and infantrymen. Day by day, he breathes life into this eloquent saga of Marines at war.

The reader steps through a looking glass into the crucible of combat. Through real men in real places -- no pseudonyms -- one sees the madness, the passion, the love, the horror, and the loyalty shared by pilots, aircrewmen, and infantrymen. In the end, their survival became their victory.