Hundred Feet over Hell: Flying with the Men of the 220th Recon Airplane Company over I Corps and the DMZ, Vietnam 1968-1969 Book

Jim Hooper has captured a slice of history that will unfortunately drift into obscurity in not too many years. The role of direct ground support for soldiers and marines in enemy contact on the ground, by slow flying, low flying, lightly armed Army aircraft.

Hooper captured the 'pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time' physical skills necessary to just keep the aircraft aloft, while at the same time he shed some insight into the mental conditioning necessary to do the mission and not just turn around and fly for cover. Add figuring out artillery fire missions or bomb strikes for the jets to support the guys on the ground, at night, in the rain, and you might begin to see how difficult those jobs were. It was, pat your head, rub you tummy, juggle with both feet, talk on the radio, figure out the geometry of a fire mission and do all the above at the same time while someone was shooting very large bullets at you frequently.

And Hooper managed to convey that to the reader eloquently in a narrative that spoke with several voices of the men that had been there and done that.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in the history of the Vietnam War. It probably should be required reading for flight school and it definitely should be read by the families of those aviators who to this day have no idea what their loved ones did in the war.

Thomas D. Cooke
Captain
48th Assault Helicopter Co.
10th Combat Aviation Battalion
REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM 1968-1969