Bonnie-Sue: A Marine Corps Helicopter Squadron in Vietnam [Perfect Paperback]

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in that period of Marine Corps history.

The first thing that struck me, and continued to strike me, was the casualness of how missions and battles were described. Marion describes a squadron mate's H-46 colliding with a grounded Huey in the same way that I would explain a Computer crashing while at work. It's all part of the job, and getting distracted from the task at hand could spell disaster for both the pilots and their crew. As I neared the end of the book, I noticed that even I was starting to view hot LZ's, steady ground fire, and rear wheel only landings as normal occurrences to be dealt with every day, by every pilot.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to have a glimpse at what it would be like to put your life on the line for your country, and your friends. I look at my Father, and all Veterans, in a whole new light.

The Prologue very squarely sets thestage for the book by looking at a small part of the history of Vietnam which is germane to understanding a small bit of the Oriental mind as it pertains to "the war" and the "coming of the United States, as leader of the free world." The U.S. Marines arrived in 1962 to help the South Vietnamese, a country already used to warfare for at least 2000 years. How bizarre to begin the whole affair on Palm Sunday, 1962. Beginning with the very early troop deployment , Code named Operation Shu-Fly, the Marines actually started in the Mekong region with H-34,s before landing in mass at Danang on March 8, 1965. Funny how PBS documentaries seem to leave this fact out.

Following the Prologue, Marion Sturkey doesa masterful job through some 10 chapters telling the actual story of Marine Aviation starting from Marble Mountain, July 14, 1966 through The Seige at Khe Sanh. Day by day , hour by hour, you will be stunned by the details contained in Chapters titled: Mutter Ridge, The New Year, The Longest Night, The Hill Fights and They Bought the Farm. You will be held captured by stirring detail, taken from hundreds of abstracts from After-action-Reports, Aircraft Accident Reports, squadron Unit Diaries and Flight Schedules, Casualty Cards, and Command Chronologies. Bonnie-Sue.... is no "from memory" biography.

Closing out the book , the author submits a Requiem: (Webster-- A Mass for the repose of a departed soul or souls....in honor of the dead!) Punctuating the details of the pull-out, overthrow and die-down of the War ,Marion Sturkey quotes many prophetic words by people known and unknown to show just how "history" will remember the whole affair. There is no crying or remorse, only a factual hard hitting and truthful approach to reality. To quote the author, " Surviving Marine Corps helicopter pilots and aircrewmen remember the horror and hardships, the fear and fatique, the stench and carnage. Yet, they also recall the camaraderie, the love and brotherhood, the passion, the incommunicable experience of Marines at war. THEY FOUGHT AND FLEW HAND-IN-HAND WITH DEATH, BUT THEY WERE NEVER MORE ALIVE. THEIR SURVIVAL BECAME THEIR VICTORY!"

Any helicopter pilot who is serious about knowing exactly what happened will want to have and read this book. If you rely on accounts, such as the many PBS mini-series, solely for your facts, you have not heard the real truth. To help quickly find facts and names, "Bonnie Sue.." contains a complete Master Index with 419 names(real people) and a Bibliography of 169 listings. If the author Marion F. Sturkey didn't apply for and receive a PhD for his fine research and writing, he should have. As far as receiving one from the School of Hard Knocks, I would give him a PhD, for sure. Read it and you will no doubt agree. And, in this case, PhD actually stands for "Plenty of Heroic Detail"!

Tom Payne

Bandit32

118th AHC

66-67 END