I was recently asked in an online interview why I wrote this book.   Many friends and acquaintances have asked me that same question.  Some suggest to me that I was promoting my involvement in the War in Vietnam. A few others suggested I am seeking recognition.

The truth is that I and others who were in Vietnam in 1972 wanted the history of that period documented and published. The fact is that the official US Army history, as recorded in the “Army Green Book”, has no record of US Army Aviation operations in South Vietnam from May to December 1972.   After many discussions, including many with my father before he passed away, it was clear to me that someone had to write this history down.  I had many personal records and unit orders, as well as small pocket type memorandum books of mission and duty notes, that I would give to my dad in Saigon to carry home for me, along with letters home and photos that I kept from that period. My contemporaries from both the 48^th AHC and F/8 Cav would see these at unit reunions and tell me that I should write the history. 

When I had my first chapter drafts complete, I felt that they were cold and dry narratives of many of the actions and events in 1972.  Several fellow unit members read them and felt they did not convey the emotion, the danger, the risks, and the consequences to each of us that needed to also be recorded.  Joe Bathanti, former North Carolina Poet Laurate and a professor at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC suggested to my PTSD writing group at the Asheville Veterans Hospital that we should write about our own experience and from our own perspective on those experiences. 

That is the path I took. I have presented the history of that period in South Vietnam from the perspective of a US Army helicopter pilot, who actually lived it.   I took several attempts to get the Department of Defense to approve the early drafts of my narrative. I originally titled the book “Blue Ghost Blue”, my call sign in F/8 Cav.  But that was seen as too clunky for a title.  A friend pointed out that the history of our operations culminates with the search for, and destruction of the Soviet guns intended to destroy Saigon and shift the outcome of the Paris Peace Talks.  So, the title of the book became “The Saigon Guns”. In 2018, DoD approved my book draft, subject to removing some “personally identifying information” of other unit members and some senior leaders. 

I offer it to my readers as the history of my units in South Vietnam in 1972 from my perspective. I hope it conveys that experience, with its exciting drama, danger, fear, loss, frustration and, yes, pain.  Members of my units in South Vietnam during that period have nearly all told me or have written reviews that state, while it is my story, it does convey the history of our units and reflects their own experiences.  I have already heard of family members of former unit members who tell me that they now have a much better understanding of their father, brother, or uncle.  In several cases I have received truly heartfelt, sometimes tearful, thanks from members of their family.   

I never expected or intended my book to be a best seller.  Many elders, high school teachers and college professors have told me over the years, starting with my travels in post-war Europe in the early 1960’s, that the only history that is remembered is that which has been written down and published. That was graphically demonstrated to me as a young man with the book by Cornelius Ryan entitled The Longest Day. His history is that which is most referenced for June 6, 1944.   That was the intent of my humble effort in writing The Saigon Guns. 

John T. Hoffman