Review of Masters of the Art by Ronald E. Winter

Author:  Ronald E. Winter.
Title:  Masters of the Art:  A Fighting Marine's Memoir of Vietnam.
Publisher:  Presidio Press.
Copyright:  1989, 2005.
Pages:  262.
Price:  $7.99 (US).

Overview and Impressions:
Author, Ronald E. Winter, talks about his time as an electronics technician and helicopter door gunner on a CH-46 Sea Knight medium helicopter in 1968-1969 during the height of the Vietnam War.  He was stationed in the north of the country near Ke Sahn and the DMZ.  Winter saw lots of action and lost a few friends.

The author talked about his time at Paris Island and how his Marine Corps instructors prepared him for Vietnam.  Winters enlisted in 1966.  He didn't see any action until May 1968.  The air crews were tight-knit.  Their loss hurt his unit particularly hard.  The time they spent training for Vietnam in North Carolina during 1967 eventually paid off.

However, the author didn't around to describing his combat experience until halfway through Masters of the Art.  His accounts are riveting and harrowing.  The later part of the books is Winter's coming to terms with Vietnam.  Recommended.