Peter D. Shay

Peter D. Shay’s outstanding freshman effort is both a personal and institutional history of a small tactical Navy helicopter unit in Vietnam, HA(L)-3 “Seawolves,” that reads fast and furious, but not without a penchant for details. The story is an exciting for read for any aviation enthusiast or military historian. The Navy’s only “brown water” light attack squadron during Vietnam is little known outside the squadron passageways of the Navy’s HSC and HSM commands. Shay, himself a former HA(L)-3 pilot during the war, shares the incredible story of Allen “Wes” Weseleskey and his daring rescue mission of U.S. Army Rangers at Cao Lahn on March 9, 1968. The book traces Weseleskey’s career in biographical fashion, introducing him as an adolescent and continues to chronicle relevant career milestones into the twenty-first century. The bulk of the book’s material hovers around Weseleskey and HA(L)-3’s operations in 1967-68, which have been glossed over in most published Vietnam “battle” histories.