Rattler One-Seven (North Texas Military Biography and Memoir Series)
Hardcover – June 4, 2004
Description
From Publishers Weekly Gross joined the army in November 1968 at age 18 to fly helicopters, believing the Vietnam War would be over by the time he completed his flight training. It wasn't. He put in a year in the war zone, from May 1970 to May 1971, as a young Huey helicopter pilot, flying hundreds of dangerous missions under the Rattler 17 call sign with the 71st Assault Helicopter Company near Chu Lai and later in Quang Tri. Gross took part in the massive Operation Lam Son 719 in February 1971, when American forces provided air and artillery support for Army of South Vietnam troops who crossed into Laos to raid the Ho Chi Minh Trail. His war memoir is heavy on detail; Gross dutifully, and sometimes dully, describes his day-to-day activities in the air and on the ground. Reflections on the latter include passages on his interactions with his fellow pilots and superior officers and with the Vietnamese "hootch maids" who did the GIs' laundry and polished their boots, as well as details of his R&R and leave time in Australia. He offers some commentary ("What bothers me most is that we could have won the war!"), but wealth of detail, rather than of insight, is the draw. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. " Rattler One-Seven will make an important contribution to the Vietnam War literature. There's nothing else like it out there." -- Lt. Col. John F. Guilmartin, Jr., USAF (Ret.), and professor of history, Ohio State University "Chuck Gross's book tells exactly what it was like to fly a Huey slick in combat in the Vietnam War." -- James Joyce, author, Pucker Factor 10 "Exciting reading! It is a must-read for all military and aviation enthusiasts." -- Chuck Carlock, author, Firebirds CHUCK GROSS was an army helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War from May 1970 through May 1971. He logged more than twelve hundred hours of combat flying and achieved Senior Aircraft Commander status. After the war he became a commercial pilot and recently retired from American Airlines as a 767/757 captain. Gross is also an instructor in the martial arts and has published a self-defense video course. He lives in Gallatin, Tennessee. Read more
Features & Highlights
- Rattler One-Seven
- puts you in the helicopter seat, to see the war in Vietnam through the eyes of an inexperienced pilot as he transforms himself into a seasoned combat veteran.
- When Chuck Gross left for Vietnam in 1970, he was a nineteen-year-old army helicopter pilot fresh out of flight school. He spent his entire Vietnam tour with the 71st Assault Helicopter Company flying UH-1 Huey helicopters. Soon after the war he wrote down his adventures, while his memory was still fresh with the events.
- Rattler One-Seven
- (his call sign) is written as Gross experienced it, using these notes along with letters written home to accurately preserve the mindset he had while in Vietnam.
- During his tour Gross flew Special Operations for the MACV-SOG, inserting secret teams into Laos. He notes that Americans were left behind alive in Laos, when official policy at home stated that U.S. forces were never there. He also participated in Lam Son 719, a misbegotten attempt by the ARVN to assault and cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail with U.S. Army helicopter support. It was the largest airmobile campaign of the war and marked the first time that the helicopter was used in mid-intensity combat, with disastrous results.
- Pilots in their early twenties, with young gunners and a Huey full of ARVN soldiers, took on experienced North Vietnamese antiaircraft artillery gunners, with no meaningful intelligence briefings or a rational plan on how to cut the Trail. More than one hundred helicopters were lost and more than four hundred aircraft sustained combat damage. Gross himself was shot down and left in the field during one assault.
- Rattler One-Seven
- will appeal to those interested in the Vietnam War and to all armed forces, especially aviators, who have served for their country.
