Rattler One-Seven puts you in the helicopter seat, to see the war 
in Vietnam through the eyes of an inexperienced pilot as he 
transforms himself into a seasoned combat veteran.

    When Chuck Gross left for Vietnam in 1970, he was a 
nineteen-year-old army helicopter pilot fresh out of flight school. He
spent his entire Vietnam tour with the 71st Assault Helicopter 
Company flying UH-1 Huey helicopters. Soon after the war he wrote 
down his adventures, while his memory was still fresh with the events. 
Rattler One-Seven (his call sign) is written as Gross experienced 
it, using these notes along with letters written home to accurately 
preserve the mindset he had while in Vietnam.

    During his tour Gross flew Special Operations for the MACV-SOG, 
inserting secret teams into Laos. He notes that Americans were left 
behind alive in Laos, when official policy at home stated that U.S. 
forces were never there. He also participated in Lam Son 719, a 
misbegotten attempt by the ARVN to assault and cut the Ho Chi Minh 
Trail with U.S. Army helicopter support. It was the largest airmobile 
campaign of the war and marked the first time that the helicopter was 
used in mid-intensity combat, with disastrous results.

    Pilots in their early twenties, with young gunners and a Huey full 
of ARVN soldiers, took on experienced North Vietnamese antiaircraft 
artillery gunners, with no meaningful intelligence briefings or a rational 
plan on how to cut the Trail. More than one hundred helicopters were
lost and more than four hundred aircraft sustained combat damage. 
Gross himself was shot down and left in the field during one assault.

    Rattler One-Seven will appeal to those interested in the Vietnam 
War and to all armed forces, especially aviators, who have served 
for their country. 

_________________________________________________________

CHUCK GROSS was an army helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War 
from May 1970 through May 1971. He logged more than twelve 
hundred hours of combat flying and achieved Senior Aircraft 
Commander status. After the war he became a commercial pilot and 
recently retired from American Airlines as a 767/757 captain. Gross 
is also an instructor in the martial arts and has published a self-defense 
video course. He lives in Gallatin, Tennessee.


Number One: North Texas Military Biography and Memoir Series


What people are saying about this book

"Gross's memoir is worth reading . . . because of his description of 
the chaos and incompetence that accompanied Vietnamization. . . . 
His stories should find an audience among serious collectors of 
books about Vietnam."—Military History of the West

"Chuck Gross's book tells exactly what it was like to fly a Huey 
slick in combat in the Vietnam War. The only things missing are 
the smells of gunpowder and the incredible noise as he takes the 
reader on combat assaults into hot landing zones."—James Joyce, 
author, Pucker Factor 10

"As a helicopter pilot with combat experience in Vietnam, I could 
readily relate to Gross's experiences—several of them had the hair 
on the back of my neck standing up! Rattler One-Seven will make 
an important contribution to the Vietnam War literature. There's 
nothing else like it out there."—Lt. Col. John F. Guilmartin, Jr., 
USAF (Ret.), and professor of history, Ohio State University

"Exciting reading! Chuck Gross vividly tells the dramatic account 
of being a combat helicopter pilot in such a way that you feel you 
are there. It is a must-read for all military and aviation 
enthusiasts."—Chuck Carlock, author, Firebirds