This book is a war story 20+ years later of a scout pilot flying Loachs in Vietnam. Hugh Mills's development of scout techniques is still used today. What began as a scout and a gunship flying together developed into an armed scout bird able to back up the gun ship on his outbound runs. Many praise Mill's courage and tactics under fire. No doubt it was a fun book to read. When viewed from a current scout's eyes, you can definitely see some poor scout tactics and embellishment. But this was war, and what war story is good without a little jam to sweeten the story?
Hugh Mills was a young Lieutenant that joined during Vietnam and became a pilot after Armor Candidate School. He yearned for a position in the scout platoon. After working his way up from a Huey pilot into a seat in the OH-6 loach, Mills made a name for himself. Even though his Troop Commander was against it, Mills had a minigun mounted on the side of his aircraft on his first mission.
While this may show his boldness, it also showed how damn cocky he was. In today's Army, if a Major said there wasn't going to be a gun on the side of the bird, no Lieutenant could say there was going to be. It was the belief of the Major that the scout pilot was made to get down in the trees, find the fight, then get the hell out of the way for the Cobra gunship to completely waste.
The en...
