The war in Vietnam saw the rise of US Army aviation to levels it had not seen since the end of WWII. During this time, there was considerable in-fighting with the US Air Force over mission and assets with the Air Force wanting to take over just about all fixed wing assets that had been developed by the Army as well as having a monopoly on armed aircraft. Of course, that was something that didn't sit well with Army  planners as it was much easier to call in strikes using local assets rather than wait on the delay that was inevitable when calling on others for support. This led not only to armed helicopters, but also to the 'fudging' of the agreement when it came to arming those few fixed wing aircraft that the Army still operated.

In this superb book on Army Aviation in Vietnam, author Wayne Mutza covers the full run of aircraft operated by the US Army during the war, from its start in the early 1960s until the end in the mid 1970s. It starts with the initial concept of airmobile operations and the beginning of the forming of plans for the use of the helicopter in combat. This section includes those helicopters used in pilot training as well as the early aircraft types used in Vietnam before the war started to escalate.

The book is then broken down into sections according to the type of aircraft. We have O-1s, OV-1s, Hueys, Heavy Lifters, Otters, Beavers, Caribous, Loaches, SIGINT types, and Cobra gunships just to name the more plentiful types. There are also aircraft one doesn't normally associate with Army aviation and the stories of crews that flew with other services. There is even a bit of personal tie-in with a small part about Sea Brine operations with VQ-1.

All of this is superbly illustrated with hundreds of photographs, most of them in full color and the usually fine full color profiles we have come to expect from Squadron/Signal publications. It is a book that no Army aviation enthusiast should be without and it is one that I can most highly recommend to you.

Thanks to Squadron Products for the review sample. You can find your copy at your local shop or on-line retailer.

November 2009

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