Brennan has put together a high-octane collection of personal accounts of battle from 30 Air Cavalry warriors who served in the 1st of the 9th Air Cavalry. I read a lot of these memoirs, and this one is a cut above the rest, both in terms of the accounts and the organization. The 1/9 was an elite unit that was constantly in battle, and these men have hair-raising tales of heroism and sacrifice under fire. Putting seven years of stories together provides a bigger picture on the war than is typically in a one-year tour of duty memoir, with the progression from slow pistol powered H-13 scouts and ad hoc Huey gunships, to the battle-tested tactics of 1970, and the battered withdrawal in '72.

Cav troopers came in three flavors. Blue teams were infantry, securing hot LZs and rescuing downed pilots. Red teams flew gunships, first Huey and then Cobras, devastating targets with rockets and miniguns. The best of the best were White team scouts, who flew H-13s and OH-58s at treetop level, tracking Charlie down jungle paths, drawing fire from the infantry, and using a variety of customized guns and bombs to bring the fight to the enemy.