By Jim HooperHardcover, 6 x 9
272 pages, 23 b/w photos
ISBN: 978-0-7603-3633-5
$25.00 / $27.50 CAN/ £17.00
"This is a very good book and perhaps an even better story ... a must read for those who have an interest in the Viet-Nam War ."
—Military magazine
Forward air controllers in Vietnam were acknowledged as having perhaps the most dangerous aviation role of the war. Flying at speeds well below the top end of most family cars, they spent hours over hostile terrain in flimsy Cessna O-1 Bird Dogs. Their work was crucial in finding and stopping the enemy before they could attack American troops, and supporting those troops with artillery and air strikes when the battle was joined.
Of the many army Bird Dog units in Southeast Asia, none operated in as hostile an environment as the “Catkillers” of the 220th Reconnaissance Airplane Company. Their tactical area of operations was up against the Demilitarized Zone (an oxymoron if ever there was one) in I Corps, the northern-most combat zone in South Vietnam. At the time it was estimated that there were seventy-eight thousand NVA soldiers in the area.
In the DMZ with the 220th RAC’s 1st Platoon, it was normal to come under fire on almost every mission. Bullet holes in their aircraft were so common that they were barely worthy of mention. When crossing the Ben Hai River into North Vietnam in search of enemy artillery, flying at 120 mph in the sights of an array of anti-aircraft weapons, only good fortune kept more Catkillers from being lost.
A Hundred Feet Over Hell is the story of a handful of young pilots taking extraordinary risks to support their brothers-in-arms on the ground. A different kind of hero in a different kind of war, they often made the difference between a soldier returning alive to his family or having the lonely sound of “Taps” played over his grave. Based on extensive interviews, and often in the men’s own words, A Hundred Feet Over Hell puts the reader in the plane as this intrepid band of U.S. Army aviators calls in fire support for the soldiers and marines of I Corps.
About the Author
Jim Hooper is a war correspondent and author. Wounded twice while covering Africa as a freelance journalist and photographer, he has reported on wars in Angola, Chad, Namibia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan and Uganda. He is equally familiar with the Balkans, filing dispatches from Bosnia (where he was captured by Muslim fundamentalists and escaped execution only by extraordinary good luck), Croatia and Montenegro. His most recent book was Bloodsong!: First-hand Accounts of a Modern Private Army in Action: Angola 1993-1995 (HarperCollinsUK, 2003). The older brother of a wounded veteran of the 220th RAC, he lives in London.
