Crew Chief

by Jesse Mcleod

The author, a helicopter mechanic, door gunner, and crew chief in Vietnam, recounts his experiences as a member of an assault helicopter company during the Tet Offensive

Genres: Military Fiction, Nonfiction, War

368 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 1988

Reviews

[Pinky And The Brain]

The story of a very lucky Crew Chief from an Assault Helicopter Company. The flow of the story was okay, but seemed to jump a bit in later chapters. Editing could have done with a bit of a brush up as there were many spelling and grammatical errors. The author decided to mainly focus on a short period of time from what seems to have been a very active tour. Frustratingly the story finishes with about 2 month to play in the tour and is wrapped up with an epilogue. This novel could have been greater than it’s sum, but was let down through a myopic view.

This all said, it was still a very good story and easily read. The characters are easy to buy into, even the villains and the anti-hero. Well done on this.

[Stephanie Pieck]

This novel clearly depicted the friendships and frictions experienced by helicopter flight crews during the Vietnam War. There were many vivid characters and memorable scenes. Some readers may find the author's definitions helpful, especially since he writes that one goal for writing this book was to try and explain to noncombatants what the Vietnam experience was really like and why it affected people who lived through it so deeply.

[Elizabeth]

This book was good, but there were a few times there were footnotes included and then on the next page the information in the footnote was explained by a character, which was distracting. The writing was easy to follow and the stories enlightening, but somehow overall the book felt slow and did not hold my interest very well.

[Bruce]

The best Vietnam war story I have ever read and I have read most of them! The Author puts you right in the helicopter with him and I felt as though I had lived his experience. A true story that is true to life about one mans experience.

I highly recommend this book to any reader.