The last of my Vietnam books for a while (swapping over to some WW2 stuff before hitting the travel books on the trip) is an awesome book that I was totally engrossed in.

The Book is Low Level Hell by Hugh L Mills Jnr. This book is about a Aeroscout Pilot’s life during the Vietnam War. To give you a bit of a background, back in the Vietnam War they pioneered Helicopter Warfare. The use of Helicopters became full time during this war. There were 3 different kinds of Helicopters used. Utility Helicopters (Chinooks, Hueys etc), Attack Helicopters (Huey Gunships, Cobras) and the Scouts. This book covers the last category. Scout Helicopters back there were an OH-6. This helicopter is still around today (Kind of) as the MD-500. Back then it was known as the Loach (although the official name was Cayuse), now the military version is known as the Littlebird. This highly agile helicopter was used to get out and gather intelligence on the Vietcong and NVA (North Vietnamese Army) movements and to spot for the Cobra’s making Attack runs.

This book just had me engrossed, how someone could spot things moving 80-100 Knots, a few feet off the ground is beyond me. I just could not comprehend it. It’s crazy to think they could see such details while moving so fast and be able to react so swiftly. Nerves of Steel. Giant Brass Balls probably to.

Great insightful book about the very little known part of the war as a lot of the Helicopter stuff focuses on the two big famous helicopters from the War the Huey and the Cobra.