By Darryl James, Published by Pen & Sword, 2020.

You’re 25, graduated from flight school a month ago, and you get on an airplane in Seattle, flying 18 hours to Cam Rahn Bay, Vietnam. Tired, scared, and lonely, you wake up with a bad sore throat. Two days later, you are sick and on a C-130 cargo airplane with no seats. You and 100 soldiers sit on the floor in its immense cargo bay, holding onto your luggage and the floor tie-down rings with your fingers. You land in Chu Lai, in I Corps. It’s bloody hot; you have a high fever and feel light-headed. Standing in line, you faint, and they put you in a MASH hospital with a bad case of the flu. No one visits; you know no one there. Hell, no one even knows you’re in Chu Lai.
Two weeks later, you fly solo missions over a triple canopy jungle with the enemy below.

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A chronological collection of short stories known by the pilots as “TINS,” for “This Is No Shit.” The TINS stories document the author’s year-long tour in Vietnam, flying a scout helicopter for the Americal Division’s Artillery Air Section. One reader described it as, “It’s as if you're beside the author in the cockpit, moving from one adventure to the next.”

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“A compelling collection of Vietnam helicopter true stories about the aviators in
Americal Division’s Artillery Aviation Section in ’68 and ‘69. Flying alone, the scout
pilots told each other their exploits daily so that they could learn and survive from their
collective experiences. Hazardous missions are intermixed with occasional humorous
details of their off-duty shenanigans. The stories describe the brotherhood that develops
between soldiers during combat. From these stories, the author, a decorated former
Army aviator describes his journey through Armor school, flight school, and Vietnam.”

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-- General Tommy Franks, Retired
Former Commander In Chief, United States Central Command