In the Sanctity of the Snake Pit
by
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From The FOWARD; It was the worst time, and the best time of my life.” “An experience that I would not do again for a million dollars, nor would I give a million dollars for the experience.” “It was a time of individual discovery and growth, if you lived through it.” These comments heard thousands of times by returning American soldiers from a faraway place. A place far away in terms of distance to be sure, but even farther from our perceived realities, a place where time passed ever so slowly with no desire to catch up to the rest of the world. A place where peoples and their customs were so different from our own! The Vietnam conflict was never a declared war—although those who served in combat would say it was indeed a war! History has recorded the conflict as the “Television war.” In the early 1960s, I recall listening and watching the news stories from a foreign country where our U.S. servicemen were involved in battles. Images flashed across television screens all over the world of U.S. soldiers firing weapons at an unseen enemy in tall elephant grass or in the dense jungles. The enemy they called “Viet Cong,” “VC,” or simply “Charlie.” We watched scenes of wounded American soldiers and Viet Cong corpses all bloodied and limp as they were carried away to awaiting helicopters. The television screen hurried through these pictures during the six o’clock local newscasts while the population had their evening meals. Those images meant little to me as a young teenager, someone who had no political awareness. The morality of the waste and wanton destruction of peoples and their country was best left up to those who knew a lot more of the situation than I. There were also the images of helicopters, dozens of them, landing into zones or “LZs”; there the troops would disembark from the hovering craft and stay crouched down until the helicopter lifted off again. These helicopter missions, called “sorties,” were combat assaults. They were the insertion, extraction, and/or repositioning of ground troops into a landing zone. Other types of sorties included gunship air support, search and rescue, resupplies of food and munitions, medical evacuation (med-evac), and more. Likewise the Vietnam conflict is also referred to as the “helicopter war.”
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About the Book
"In the Sanctity of the Snake Pit" discloses the tribulations of the Vietnam helicopter war, and provides deeply moving insight into the lives of those crewmen who routinely flew combat assault missions. Written in narrative non-fiction, the book reveals the rarely told account of air to ground combat, and the surreal events of adolescent soldiers, many exposed for the first time to their mortality. In 1969 sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll dominated most of these young lives, but they stood and fought hard believing they were doing the right thing irrespective of politics, and public opinion!
Setting the backdrop is the 135th Assault Helicopter Unit, a fighting contingency made up of Royal Australian Navy personnel and members of the United States Army. As the only multi-national experimental military unit in Vietnam, they maintained the highest order of discipline and wrought devastation on the Viet Cong in South Vietnam’s delta region.
With a year long adventure before him, the protagonist, MITCHELL COLLINS reflects on his desire to fly in the machines he was trained to repair. Almost immediately he is transformed into an aerial combatant of the unit’s elite Taipan platoon flying helicopter gunships. Their mission is to protect the troop transport choppers carrying ground forces into the fight. Once the troops are in the landing zone, the Taipan’s provided gun support and reconnaissance. His experiences were unlike other combatants who fought on the ground, the intensity and frequency of actions were multiplied by their mobility. Mitchell soon contemplates on his heartfelt emotion of the carnage and of losing comrades. In his last three months he fly’s the night missions of the hunter/killers”, and his chances for survival dwindle.
About the Author
Mr. Guard is a Vietnam Combat Veteran and former member of the 135th Assault Helicopter Company.
Born July 4th, 1950, he is a Miami native, and an avid boater. Having an extensive marine background, he owned a boat manufacturing company, and then worked as a Yacht Broker and Yacht Expeditor. As "Captain", he accrued more than 4,400 nautical miles in just four years, most of them as the solo crew.
Married, and blessed with one daughter, she has bestowed him with three grandsons!
A lifetime member of the Vietnam Helicopter Crewmembers Assoc.
Guard, is also a member of the Florida Writers Assoc., won 1st. place in the Royal Palm Literary Awards, for History/Military, held in Orlando, Fl. in 2004