Dubious Honor by D.E. Wheeler | Books in Review
D.E. Wheeler tells his Vietnam War story creatively and well in his readable memoir, Dubious Honor: The Story of a Huey Driver (She’s Hot Publishing, 250 pp., $18.99, paper).
Wheeler joined the Army rather than submit to the draft a year out of high school. He passed the exam for the Warrant Officer Flight Program and after Basic Training at Fort Polk he completed Army Primary Flight Training at Fort Wolters in Texas, then went to Fort Rucker for more flight training.
After that, virtually everyone in his training group got shipped to Vietnam. Wheeler wound up flying Hueys with the 71st Assault Helicopter Company, known “Firebirds and Rattlers.” That job included doing black ops for Special Forces in the jungles of Laos.
Wheeler tells his story primarily in the third person, but also includes first-person sections written by several of the men he served with in Vietnam.
—Marc Leepson
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