1500 feet over Vietnam

Review written by:Bernie Weisz/Vietnam Historian 10/17/09 Pembroke Pines, Fl e mail:[email protected] This book can be bought directly from the author at the following address: Mr. Bruce Lake 6621 Wakefield Drive #812 Alexandria, VA 22307 His e mail address is:[email protected] In reviewing Bruce Lake's Book, "1500 Feet Over Vietnam," it is rare that an author can be so nonchalant and modest to the fact that he had earned the "Silver Star" and 42 air medals as a young Marine helicopter pilot. However, when Mr. Lake wrote this book, it was never intended for publication. This entire memoir is based on letters that started on April 1, 1968 and concluded on April 20th, 1969, all to his wife in an attempt to describe his missions and what everyday life was like in his Vietnam "chariot" i.e. the helicopter. Self published, and without the distortion of time (writing a memoir 40 years later from memory), Lake recounts the pain of close friends dying way before their time in combat and crashes, braving enemy fire for troop insertions, extractions and medical dust offs. Mr. Lake goes farther then that. After leaving the service after 5 years, he would feel embarrassed to tell people at his college campus (often five years younger then him and experiencing their first freedom from home) that he had been to Vietnam. Vietnam had done strange things to "his head." After seeing hundreds of dead and dying people in Vietnam, not to mention flying 840 combat missions in 11 months and surviving helicopter crashes and countless near misses, Lake began to both "think" he was immortal and "knew" he was addicted to the adrenalin the previously mentioned would generate. The reader will understand why Lake grew his hair long, bought a high powered motorcycle and drove it at reckless speeds and while working at a factory he would go to the 5th floor and stand with his toes over the edge of the roof and stare at the ground; all in a fruitless attempt to unsuccessfully recreate the surge of excitement that could only come from bringing a chopper into a hot landing zone while surrounding N.V.A. muzzle flashes were aimed right at him spewing forth hot lead. The letters that made up this book were put away for 8 years, and Vietnam receded in the author's mind. Then, after a Navy Reservist and ex "Air America" pilot who lost a relative in 1968 asked Lake if he had been involved in the medical evacuation of his nephew's unit, Lake collected his feelings and with encouragement from friends

שנה

1990

שפה

English

הוצאה

Almine Library

מהדורות

1

עמודים

371

ISBN

9780962350023

מקור הנתונים: Wikidata