Preface
During a tour with The Historical Unit, U.S. Army Medical Department,Fort Detrick, Maryland, from 1974 to 1977, Peter G. Dorland, then a captainand a former Dust Off pilot in Vietnam, completed the basic research forthis book and drafted a lengthy manuscript. In the first seven months of1981, as an editor at the U.S. Army Center of Military History (CMH), Washington,D.C., I conducted further research on Dust Off, reorganized and redraftedportions of the original manuscript, and added Chapter 4 and the Epilogue.
The authors accumulated a store of debts, both at Fort Detrick and Washington.Albert E. Cowdrey, chief of the Medical History Branch (CMH), supervisedthe project, improving the manuscript's prose and organization in manyplaces, and saw that the revision received a review by other historiansat the Center: Stanley L. Falk, George L. MacGarrigle, and Jeffrey Greenhut.Col. James W. Dunn's critical eye also improved the substance of the book.The final editing and preparation of the book for publication was the workof Edith M. Boldan. Arthur S. Hardyman helped design the cover and themap.
Others at the Center who responded to frequent pleas for assistancewere Charles Simpson, Col. Mary Van Harn, Charles Ellsworth, GeraldineJudkins, Mary Gillett, Dwight Oland, Graham Cosmas, Vincent Demma, JeffreyClarke, and my coworkers in the Editorial Branch.
Without the help of these many people, Peter Dorland and I could nothave produced this book. The authors, of course, accept sole responsibilityfor any errors.
Washington, D.C.
18 January 1982
JAMES NANNEY
