Live by Chance, Love by Choice, Kill by Profession

Book excerpt: Roy Mark does it again! The follow-on book to his excellent FIXIN' TO DIE RAG again focuses on the men and times of Charlie Company of the 1st Cavalry Division's 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion during the Vietnam War. However, where FIXIN' TO DIE RAG mainly covered ten bad days between March and September 1970, LIVE BY CHANCE, LOVE BY CHOICE, KILL BY PROFESSION steps back and widens its focus. The narratives in LIVE BY CHANCE, LOVE BY CHOICE, KILL BY PROFESSION are about people rather than events. The central figures are Sterling Cody, Ozzie Daniels, and Phil Seefeld. The three are young Warrant Officers who are assigned to Charlie Company during a particularly hectic, dangerous, and important portion of the war. To help the reader better understand these men, Roy Mark has done an outstanding job of describing many of the formative events-some serious, some frivolous and some hazardous-in the lives of these men and their families. Particularly enriching are the chapters devoted to stories of Sterling Cody's father, brother, and certain moments marking his march to manhood. LIVE BY CHANCE, LOVE BY CHOICE, KILL BY PROFESSION follows Sterling Cody into the Drug Wars of South America where he transitions into the more modern and advanced UH 60 Black Hawk helicopters. After retiring, Lieutenant Colonel Sterling was recalled to active duty for one more mission: Iraqi Freedom. LIVE BY CHANCE, LOVE BY CHOICE, KILL BY PROFESSION, interesting reading though it is, does not neglect to describe some of the terrifying misfortunes attendant to any war-the close calls, the physical wounds, the mental anguish, the deaths of good men. Roy Mark is at his best in these passages. LIVE BY CHANCE, LOVE BY CHOICE, KILL BY PROFESSION is a book that will fascinate and sometimes amuse the reader. It's a very hard book to put down.