We might have been a little louder than recon liked, but we carried about 50#lbs more on our back than they did and we were invited to their parties. He did make it sound like we were gate crashers!

An excellent book, "Home Is Where You Dig It". It is worthy of the saying, "From the outside, you can't understand it, from the inside, I can't explain it, Semper Fi.

As a former U.S.Marine and member of "B" Recon 65/66 I enjoyed reading this book.

We lost members of our company in April through November of 65, as well as a number of us WIA during our tour.

I realize that the author wrote about his experience and had to rely on whatever documentation that he was able to revew concerning our outfit during our deployment from K-Bay Hawaii, to Camp Schwab, Oakinawa and on to Viet Nam.

Aside from a few errors concerning "B" Recon, the book is a must read for any Recon Marine and those who wish they were.

Semper Fi,

Anthony P. De Bellis

(FIRST IN LAST OUT)

This novel will remain always an historical account of the Marine Corps involvement in Vietnam during its dangerous disengagement in 1970. Well done Michael Hodgens, I hope you will writr more.

The treatment he gave to the major battles was good. He presented an easy to follow account of the battle, what lead up to it and the outcome. He also touched on some of what was happening back home with the politics, but only briefly. I think the most interesting parts of the book for me was the details of the air war, more specifically how the bombing kept escalating and then the final bombing push by Nixon. My only complaint with the book is that it was an overview that was a bit too light on the facts for me. The book was only 270 pages long, and book size do not necessary determine quality, this book could have been a little bit more in-depth. It seemed to me that to get a better understanding a few more pages could have been added without the overview turning into a in depth study.

I also highly reccomend the books by the Lurps he flew: Linderer, Chambers, Burford (?), and others.

The Kirkus Review makes it sound as though this book is dull, and belittles the significance of Mason's incarceration and his description of the way Chickenhawk was recieved by the public. Personally, I thought Mason's imprisonment was conveyed in a style reminiscent of Henri Charrier's Papillon, another of my favorites.

The point is, it is impossible to fully understand or appreciate Chickenhawk as a description of the Vietnam Experience without reading this book. If you liked Chickenhawk, this is a must-read.

My one criticism is the lack of historical thread of the airline after its ejection from China. The book breaks down to a series of interesting anecdotes, but the background on how CAT evolved, how it acquired jets, how Smith himself transitioned to sophisticated jet transports, is missing. I found many of the later anecdotes, though well written and compelling, oddly out of context, and wondered how they fitted into the big picture. This wasn't helped by Smith's technique of sometimes mentioning a character, and only introducing him in later pages, which has you thumbing back through the book seeing if perhaps you'd missed a passage.

But these are small criticisms indeed, and the book is a very enjoyable read of a turbulent and, frankly, romantic era of aviation.

Mike McCaffrey
Department of State/Foreign Service - Retired

Felix Smith isn't a historian. He's a pilot--a good one, since he survived 23 years with Civil Air Transport, organized to carry relief supplies around postwar China, only to become a paramilitary arm of Chiang Kai-shek's campaign against communism.

To our great good fortune, Smith also turns out to be a gifted reporter. Better than anyone else, he evokes the sights, smells, and sounds of China in 1945, along with an economy so weak that U.S. dollars were precious enough to be washed and ironed after use, and a government so depraved that it's a wonder it lasted until 1949.

China Pilot is a a wonderful book. It belongs on the shelf of every admirer of Chennault and his unorthodox air forces.

This book tells the story of a village and the marines and militia who defended it during the Vietnam War. It is filled with first hand accounts of fast paced fire-fights and battalion-sized battles. The action is riveting, and the story is endearing and heart-wrenching. A squad of marines and platoon of PF militia men fight night-after-night against local guerillas, and at times, VC main force battalions. The Americans become members of the village, eat in families' homes, play with their children, attend weddings, funerals, and holiday festivities. Their emotional ties hearten them, motivate them, and ultimately betray them.

The book was written by Francis J. West, a marine officer and RAND Corporation researcher sent to the village in the late 1960's to study its marine defenders. The marine squad -- seldom numbering more than a dozen -- was known throughout the Marine Corps. It encountered communist units more often than any other unit in the Corps; its members often fought twenty to thirty engagements a month, more than most U.S. battalions.

I've recommended this book to several men in the military, including my brother, a captian in the 10th SF group. All of them, in turn, recommended it to their friends, commanders, and subordinates.

"The Village" is as good as "Bravo Two Zero," "A Bright Shining Lie," and "We Were Soldiers Once, and Young." You won't put this book down until you're finished, and then, you'll read it again and again and give copies to your friends for Christmas.

That being said, this is still a good introduction. If you are clueless about Chinese history, this book serve as a great start. If you know anything more than the fundamentals, however, look elsewhere for information.

1) First, the dynasties in chronological order: Zhou, Qin, Han, Tang, Song, Lio, Jin, Yuan, Ming, Qing.

2) Zhou (770-240BC) is an era of constant warfare and power struggles. Confucius and Lao-tzu (creator of Daoism) are born during this period. Their writings have an enormous impact on Eastern thought and governance. The famous terracotta warrors also date back to Zhou.

3) Qin (221-206BC) and Han (202BC-220AD). This is the start of China as an empire. (pg 60) Trate routes reach all the way to Turkey, The population is 58M in 2AD (slightly larger than contemporary Rome). The great wall starts construction.

4) Tang (581-907) unifies what is now considered modern China.
They link Northern and Southern China by huge canals and inter-regional trade floursihed. Chang'an becomes the world's largest city. Culture and the arts start to thrive.

5) Song (907-1276) is not able to control East Asia like Tang or Han. They broker deals with neighboring states for a shaky peace. The status quo continues. By the 11th century, China is outpacing Europe in terms of "agricultural productivity, industrial technology, and sophistication of commercial organization." (161)

6) Ghengis Khan (1162-1227) creates huge lightning force of calvary that eventually covers 2/3 of Asian continent. Some of the cities under his (and grandson's) control: Beijing, Lhasa, Moscow, Kiev, Ormuz, and Baghdad. The divisions between Mongol ruling class and Chinese are kept clear by law, status, and language. The Chinese resent this alien rule.

7) Ming (1368-1644) is founded by Taizu, who is was the first commoner to become emperor in 1,500 years. (191) The population continues to grow, but the country is not entirely under control. Mongols attack from the North, while the Japanese attack from the east.

8) Manchus (1644-1900) from Manchuria (east of Mongolia, above Korea) create the Qing dynasty. They govern efficiently. They force their subjects to adopt the Manchu hairstyle (shaved heads with braided hair in the back) as a symbol of their loyalty. Trade with Europe increases exponentially. By 1800, Europe was buying 1/7 of all Chinese tea. This eventually leads to the Opium wars. Various colonial powers all vy for a piece of China.

9) Sun Yatsen, Chang Kaishek, Mao Zedong round out the rest of this beautifully illustrated book.