ROTORS: A Novel of the Vietnam War

by Roger Gallagher

They were college kids and young soldiers who wanted to fly, and they knew little about Vietnam other than what they read in the newspapers before going there. But Ia Drang, Kontum, Bong Son, Pleiku, Dak To, and dozens of other places soon became their trials by fire as they flew the grunts into and out of hot LZs and exposed themselves to some of the most intense combat of the war. Their mission was to fly into isolated jungle hilltops and muddy rice fields often without knowing what they'd face. Consequently, the crewmen who flew the helicopters and manned the door guns suffered some of the highest percentages of dead and wounded in the history of American warfare.

440 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Judy McCarver · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had just met a relative of Jim Frye’s prior to reading this book. This rendered personal meaning to Jim Frye’s story as I heard firsthand about his character in real life, a beloved member of his family. The book is very detailed. This may cause you to give it only a 3 or a 4-5 depending on your love of aviation-particularly with regard to helicopters-in this case combat helicopters. His detail and memory is actually extraordinary. Still yet, it is a lot of detail about the inner and outer workings of a helicopter flying in combat theaters. But it is also a story about the prolific loss of life; and the extreme sadness of that, since you get to know the casualties personally. And the political setting of the times was not spared the heartache of the truth-how a war was fought from Washington DC and not on the ground by its generals and leaders. (Imagine it this way: you’re leading a multi million dollar project for your firm in LA, but your corporate bosses in NY are directing and managing your every move on the ground in LA, even down to the agendas of your meetings and the goals of your team in completing the project successfully). That’s how the Vietnam war was fought. A war that probably should never have been entered into to begin with; yet when it was, it was promptly executed with misaligned strategies from the executive branch of our government, that sent even more young Americans to their death unnecessarily. So while the soldiers and airmen of the Vietnam war were fighting metaphorically with one hand tied behind their backs, and the body count continued to pile up, even so, upon their return home they were met with rejection and disregard.

[ED Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read if you wish to learn about helicopter training and combat flying in Vietnam. Helicopter pilots are considered true hero's to all us ex-infantry soldiers.