num_pages: 406
description: From flying with the Screaming Eagles in Vietnam to serving with the Marines and the Royal Navy this memoir recounts the life of a career military pilot. Sometimes it just isnt your day. Whether your helicopter comes apart in flight due to equipment failure or another aircraft runs into you in midair or an enemy gunner lands his rounds in exactly the right spot to take you out of the sky. Thats why after twenty-four years and more than five thousand flight hours with four armed services Maj. Robert Curtis was surprised to still be alive when he passed his retirement physical. His flying career began in the thick of the war flying Chinooks over Vietnam with the 101st Airborne. From there Curtis continued to serve with the National Guard while attending college. By then flying had become an addiction for Curtis so he continued on with the Marine Corps and Royal Navy. Over the next seventeen years he would fly off US and British ships from Egypt to Norway and all points in between. Curtis flew eight different helicoptersthe wooden-bladed OH-13E through the Chinook SeaKnight and SeaKingin war and peace around the world. During that time many of his friends died in crashes both in combat and in accidents. But some combination of skill luck and superstition saw him through.
language: English
title: Surprised at Being Alive: An Accidental Helicopter Pilot in Vietnam and Beyond
publisher: Casemate