Looking for Flyboys

With the escalation of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, the American military discovered it needed a new kind of helicopter to cope with the rugged environmental and combat conditions its fighting men were encountering. The need resulted in the development of the Bell UH-1 Iroquois and the Boeing-Vertol CH-47 Chinook.

Now they just needed the pilots, flight engineers, crew chiefs and gunners to man them. In a sense they were LOOKING FOR FLYBOYS.

Tom Messenger’s memoir follows his experiences as a Chinook flight engineer on missions over Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.  It not only relates the tales of those missions during the course of the war but also his interactions with fellow soldiers and the civilian population. Tom’s stories run the gamut from recounting the dangers of battle and capturing the anguish of war to the humorous situations of daily life in the Army so familiar to anyone who has ever served.

Tom Messenger

Tom Messenger was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. He suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which led to the creation of this book. When he couldn’t sleep, he wrote. He presently lives with his wife in Oswego, Illinois.