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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 5, 2020
Sadly, my search for a great read on the exploits of the Dust Off and Medevac units continues.
While this is a decent history of the Dust Off's evolution and deployment; it's too thin on anecdotes, narratives of actual operations, for my taste.
"Chickenhawk" for Dust Off, this is not.
The text also suffers from being replete with grammatical gaffs such as "Through out the country sides" (pg 118), hyperbole, and strategic commentary that hasn't aged well since the book's publishing. The captions to the otherwise decent photos are especially poorly edited: many have typos, one is sideways, and another describes what's clearly a truck as a helicopter.
While this is a decent history of the Dust Off's evolution and deployment; it's too thin on anecdotes, narratives of actual operations, for my taste.
"Chickenhawk" for Dust Off, this is not.
The text also suffers from being replete with grammatical gaffs such as "Through out the country sides" (pg 118), hyperbole, and strategic commentary that hasn't aged well since the book's publishing. The captions to the otherwise decent photos are especially poorly edited: many have typos, one is sideways, and another describes what's clearly a truck as a helicopter.
October 9, 2017
Good book if you had family in Dust Off. Nice over view of how it all started and led to how helicopter rescues take place today.
January 26, 2018
About the controversy between if helicopters should be used for combat or for medical purposes only
December 7, 2023
I was looking for a non-fiction book with history and details about DUST OFF in Vietnam. The author traces the history of DUST OFF in Vietnam from 1962 to 1973. I found the descriptions of the challenges faced (such as opposition to dedicating helicopters to medical evaluations; communication between DUST OFF and the unit on the ground; evacuation from densely forested areas; just to name a few), and how those challenges were addressed, to be particularly informative. The first hand accounts provided were especially interesting and added a lot to the book. Statistics provided (number of evacuations provided per year, for instance) helped illustrate the incredible contribution of the DUST OFF crews. The photos added a lot to the book, but descriptions were missing for the photo series at the end of the book. A map showing the location of DUST OFF units was located at the end of the book as well and was appreciated. I learned a lot from this book and am glad I read it.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews