This is the story of a kid who became a man while serving two tours of duty as a combat helicopter pilot in Vietnam. The author was shot down numerous times and wounded and had more misadventures than the average pilot. It takes the reader from a less than ideal childhood through flight school and into the cockpit of Huey gunships, OH-13 Scouts, and CH-47 Chinooks. Over the jungles of Southeast Asia the author earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, two Bronze Stars, the Purple Heart, and seventeen Air Medals. The author was threatened with Courts Martial on more than one occasion, and almost thrown out of the Army after one tour in Vietnam, but continued a career that led to becoming one of the first CW-5' in the military.