Once We Flew

In 1958, a helicopter flew across a March sky, bringing wonderment to an eight-year-old boy. Eleven years later, that wonderment became reality as the young man enlisted and completed the US Army’s helicopter flight training. Fifty years later, his story comes to life in Once We Flew.Sepesy straps the reader into his Huey helicopter, and shares vivid accounts of his journey from know-nothing new guy to Aircraft Commander and Flight Leader. With insight extracted from 2,200 combat flight hours, Sepesy introduces his brave band of brothers who served at his side, those who taught him how to fly and survive, as well as those who were indifferent or foolhardy. Then, Sepesy leads the reader through his monumental struggles as a civilian, embarking down a new path to battle the scars of war, including PTSD.
Meet those who earned the respect of fellow soldiers—warrant officers with big mustaches, big watches and bad attitudes. They were aviators, nineteen years old who were going to life forever—youths in command of quarter-million-dollar aircraft, equipped with machine guns shooting real bullets, flying at 120 knots, nap of the earth. And, enjoy the unique, inherent humor of military life and lighter moments of youthful pilots goofing off, their shenanigans and devil-may-care attitudes.

Returning to civilian life, and no longer indestructible, Sepesy faced new situations and responsibilities. But, the wounds and scars of war, the physical injuries and PTSD, along with a continued military mindset, presented new challenges and complicated every-day routines. Muddling through the more mundane obstacles of college and home, and family and career, became another struggle to overcome. During the next five decades, numerous operations plagued the author, and the insidious ways of PTSD went undetected—a new journey of survival and accomplishment, would begin.