Fixin' To Die Rag

by Roy Mark

Overview

FIXIN' TO DIE RAG is the true story of the men of Charlie Company of the Army’s First Cavalry Division’s 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion in Vietnam and Cambodia during 1970. When three young warrant officer pilots joined Charlie Company at their Tay Ninh base near the Cambodian border, they entered a war that was hot, and getting hotter. Charlie Company’s commanding officer was killed by enemy fire while piloting a UH-1 Huey. One of his men later described his commander’s death as “a one in a trillion tragedy.”

During the Cambodian Incursion, Charlie Company lost a door gunner to a rocket attack followed by the loss of five soldiers in a severe nighttime thunderstorm. In a “hover down and kick out” mission inside Cambodia, they lost a pilot that should not have been flying that mission.The three young warrant officer pilots survived the Cambodia Incursion, but tragedy soon struck. One survived a violent accident in which his Huey was destroyed. The other two went on a mission from which they never returned. The radio crackled to life to announce their doom:

Gooood Morning Vietnam… We’ve Just Had a Mid Air Collision

Product Details

BN ID:	2940046357608
Publisher:	Roy Mark
Publication date:	10/08/2014
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Roy Mark grew up in New Orleans. He joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1963 and received his basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina. He later served as a radiotelegraph operator with the First Anti Tank Battalion at Camp Pendleton and with the Marine Communications Detachment onboard the USS Mount McKinley (AGC 7). His final assignment was as an instructor at the Radiotelegraph School, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego. During his service, he served nine days in Vietnam in support of Vietnamese Counteroffensive (Phase II) during July of 1966.

Mr. Mark attended Southeastern Louisiana University before beginning a career in the oil industry. In a career spanning three decades, he worked as a mud engineer, mud school instructor, oil well blowout prevention instructor, and drilling supervisor.
Roy has worked in locations around the world, including North and South America, Europe, and Southeast Asia. He lived in Indonesia from 1988 until relocating to Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2001.

Mr. Mark has written technical manuals on oil well blowout prevention for two companies and has written numerous short stories. He published “The Mark Family History” in 2005 and “The Texan and The Ice Boy” in 2014.