• Rattler One-Seven: A Vietnam Helicopter Pilot's War Story

  • North Texas Military Biography and Memoir Series
  • By: Chuck Gross
  • Narrated by: Gerry Burke
  • Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (367 ratings)

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Rattler One-Seven: A Vietnam Helicopter Pilot's War Story  By  cover art

Rattler One-Seven: A Vietnam Helicopter Pilot's War Story

By: Chuck Gross
Narrated by: Gerry Burke
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Publisher's summary

Rattler One-Seven puts you in the helicopter seat, to see the war in Vietnam through the eyes of an inexperienced pilot as he transforms himself into a seasoned combat veteran. At the age of twenty, Chuck Gross spent his 1970-71 tour with the 71st Assault Helicopter Company flying UH-1 Huey helicopters. He inserted special operations teams into Laos and participated in Lam Son 719, a misbegotten attempt to assault and cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail, during which his helicopter was shot down and he was stranded in the field.

Soon after the war he wrote down his adventures, while his memory was still fresh with the events. Rattler One-Seven (his call sign) is written as Gross experienced it, using these notes along with letters written home to accurately preserve the mindset he had while in Vietnam.

©2004 Chuck Gross (P)2013 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Exciting reading! Chuck Gross vividly tells the dramatic account of being a combat helicopter pilot in such a way that you feel you are there. Rattler One-Seven is a compelling memoir of what it was like to fly combat helicopters in Vietnam. It is a must-read for all military and aviation enthusiasts." (Chuck Carlock, author of Firebirds)
"Gross' memoir is worth reading. His stories should find an audience among serious collectors of books about Vietnam." ( Military History of the West)
"Chuck Gross' book tells exactly what it was like to fly a Huey slick in combat in the Vietnam War. The only things missing are the smells of gunpowder and the incredible noise as he takes the reader on combat assaults into hot landing zones." (James Joyce, author of Pucker Factor 10)

What listeners say about Rattler One-Seven: A Vietnam Helicopter Pilot's War Story

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

One of the Best Helicopter books I've listened to!

The first Heli book I listened to was Night Stalkers. That was Very informative and at the same time fed my Love for Helicopters. This book Does it all over again. Gross takes his letters he sent home and other things he wrote at the time and reads them as he progresses thru his Army stint in "Nam". He takes you from when he enters the Recruit center and adds the most Exiting and informative days in that time period and puts them in this book. He becomes one of the more revered leaders of his unit that many guys come to look up to. I hesitated b/c of not many people rating this yet but I'm glad I took a chance and got it. It is now one of my Favorites that I will be re listening to for a long time.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good story. Mispronunciations distract and annoy

This review is limited to the audio version. Mispronunciations litter this audiobook butchering both helicopter and military terminology as well as geographic locations, such as the historic city of Huế. I found this distracting as well as disrespectful to the earnest efforts of the author. I don't intend this as nit-picking. I simply expect (and hope) for better from Audible. The audio format calls for adequate preparation by the production team prior to entering the studio, with particular attention to accurate pronunciation.

That said, Mr. Gross comes across as one of those decent enough sorts, simultaneously coming of age while developing into a competent combat pilot, yet so straight-laced, pious and temperate that he routinely rubbed his commanders the wrong way and alienated himself from his peers. I respect that he was a young man from a somewhat sheltered background placed in a very difficult, life-threatening situation not of his choosing. In this respect, he performed admirably. Still, he seems to have been a bit of an odd-man-out during his brief, but unquestionably heroic, tour of duty in Southeast Asia.

I found the story compelling, thank the author for his service and urge interested readers/listeners to purchase and enjoy the book.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Not much substance, get "Chickenhawk" instead

Not enough substance and very few accounts of actual action. "Chickenhawk" is the definitive book on the subject.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

The importance of a narrator

This book's story line is about the experiences of a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. That's fine ... my problem is the narrator. As a helicopter pilot in Vietnam myself, I found narrator Gerry Burke's mis-pronuciation of several words important to the story such as "cyclic" (one of the pilot's controls), and "Hue" (one of the country's earliest capitals and the scene of vicious fighting in 1968) to be extremely off-putting. I was disappointed that neither Mr. Burke, nor publisher University Press Audiobooks, nor Audible took the time to edit the work and ensure correctness of pronunciation.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

The title should read,”Whining, moaning, and groaning about my choice to join the Army.”

As an Army Pilot I absolutely hated this book. It’s rancid with victimization and constant complaining. Don’t waste your time and money on this dumpster fire of a book. Download Chickenhawk or Night Stalkers instead.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Very flat

It was a very flat story. There was really not too much exciting about it. Nothing really stood out in this book. It was more or less just something to read about a bad time in American history.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Mixed Feelings

I like the story for the humanity of the situation, combining the military combat pilot experience with being so very young. And yet, the guy kind of rubbed me the wrong way, even though there was nothing I could fault him for, nor anything he wrote that I even personally disagree with. It definitely contained the thing that has always struck me most about the military. My own very unusual and widely varied experience always struck me with the intense surrealism that is apparent, particularly at the end of his story, coming home from a year in combat, to be refused admission to a bar because he was still twenty years old. Then he ended up in his childhood bedroom, recognizing that he was not home, because that place no longer existed. It is cliché and yet all who have experienced it can understand the truth of it in a way that none who have not can ever understand. I think maybe I have just read too many of these, and yet, like many pilots, I can never really stop reading, thinking, and talking about aviation until I die. “Aviation spoken here!”

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great True Story

Found the book to be well authored.
Thank you for a great very detailed
Account of your time in the service.
I believe every word.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent!

Narrator was excellent. Story is concise and on point. Bravery is one word description for our military.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good story but there are others I I thought were better

I thought the story offered a good perspective but there are other similar books that i thought went into more depth about the writers experience in Vietnam.

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