Fifty Years Before the (Rotor) Mast: A Memoir of an Air America Helicopter Pilot. This item is unavailable.Fifty Years Before the (Rotor) Mast: A Memoir of an Air America Helicopter Pilot

This book is a memoir of 50 years flying helicopters in a variety of situations. Included are rescues, combat operations, mountain and off-shore flying, medical evacuations, flight instruction and numerous flight missions that require pushing the flight envelope to the maximum. Highlighted are Ben Van Etten’s five years as a flight captain with Air America, Inc. in Thailand and the unpublicized war in Laos. During that period the author describes in detail his interaction with other pilots and his “customers,” primarily the CIA. The book also includes geographical and historical observations from a first person prospective. And a vivid description from inside the cockpit during many lifesaving missions. This book should tweak the interest of aviators and non-aviators alike.

Ben A. Van Etten was born in 1940 and spent his first 21 years in Bellevue Washington where he attended public schools and college at the University of Washington in Seattle. He joined the Army in 1962, completed aviation maintenance training and finally graduated from helicopter flight school in 1963. He has spent over 50 years in both military and civilian aviation. His military flight experience includes active duty tours in Germany, Vietnam and many active/reserve/national guard assignments throughout the United States. He retired from the military in 1997. His civilian flight experience included giving flight instruction at the US Army Primary Helicopter School, five years as a helicopter captain with Air America in Thailand and Laos, chief pilot for both Davison Air Service and Southern Gulf Helicopters. He also flew with Bell Helicopter International in Iran and MPRI in Bosnia. His world-wide flight experiences include off-shore operations, mountain flying, cold weather operations, flight instruction, instrument flying, maintenance test flights and FAA part 35 and 141 operations. He finally retired from flying with over 14,000 accident free flight hours and was elected into the Army Aviation Hall of Fame in 1998. His had been accompanied by his wife Linda on all his aviation assignments, except one year in Vietnam, during the past 54 years. Linda and Ben have also raised and educated their five children. They have retired in Wilmington, NC., on a golf course, near the beach, and enjoy visits from their 12 grandchildren.