Pop a Smoke - Memoir of a Marine Helicopter Pilot in Vietnam

By 1969, the Sikorski H-34 was an older helicopter with severe limitations for combat duty in Vietnam. For pilots like U.S. Marine Lieutenant Rick Gehweiler, the good news was it could still take significant damage and keep flying. His vivid memoir narrates his harrowing, at times deadly flight missions under fire, as experienced in the cockpit, along with anecdotes of tragedy and humor from his 13-month tour through Da Nang and Phu Bai.

List of contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

¿1.¿Pop Smoke

¿2.¿The Beginning

¿3.¿Quantico

¿4.¿Pensacola

¿5.¿The Edge of the Envelope

¿6.¿Phu Bai

¿7.¿Water Buffalo

¿8.¿The Sikorsky Bounce

¿9.¿Flying for the ROKs

10.¿Incoming or Outgoing?

11.¿Hill 818

12.¿The Twilight Zone

13.¿Final Days

14.¿Departure

15.¿Boat Ride from Hell

16.¿Coming Home

17.¿You Can Run but You Cannot Hide

Epilogue

Military History of Richard W. Gehweiler

Index

About the author

Rick Gehweiler graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1967, attended Marine Corp Officer Candidate School at Quantico, Virginia, earned his navy wings in Pensacola, Florida, and served a tour in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot flying combat missions. He currently manages a fly fishing lodge on the Bighorn River in Montana.

Product details

• Authors: Rick Gehweiler
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: from age 18
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.06.2022
• EAN: 9781476688640
• ISBN: 978-1-4766-8864-0
• No. of pages: 182
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 9 mm
• Weight: 254 g
• Illustrations: Raster,schwarz-weiss
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Vietnam, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / General, Memoirs, Military history: post-WW2 conflicts, c 1955 to c 1975 (Vietnam War period), Vietnam War, HISTORY / Wars & Conflicts / Vietnam War