Highest Traditions
Tony Lazzarini
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2003 Voyager Publishing
ISBN: 1891555022

Memories of War.

Tony Lazzarini is a prize winning playwrite as well as an award winning writer, & Highest Traditions are his memories of his tours as a helicopter door gunner, whose average life span under fire was 20 seconds tops.

Good thing for us Tony Lazzarini was not your average door gunner! In this simple, modest & intensely personal glimpse of War, we stand beside this author in the Hueys he has flown during various, & sometimes weird &/or covert, & always hazardous, missions over Viet Nam.

When he returns Stateside between tours, we are in the eye of the storm, where he opens up a poignant & remarkable time capsule.

Short & to the point, with a little philosophy & not a single unnecessary word, Highest Traditions is a highly readable & exhilarating memoir of a young American's trial by fire -- why he went, what he did, as well as odd & memorable stories.

Tony Lazzarini's quote from Shakespeare's Henry V, a play I learnt by heart & acted in at school sets the scene well for the telling of this “band of brothers” -- the UH-ID helicopter “A”Company, 25th Aviation Battalion, 25th Infantry Division composed of two assault platoons & a VIP platoon. Highest Traditions are the memories of those Hueys or “Slicks” -- their crews, where they flew & why, how they died or survived.

“The Huey was a constant part of the sky as the sun and stars. The popping sound made by the rotor blades announced its arrival and departure. It was a supply ship, a Medevac ship, a transport ship, a weapon to fear and many times heroically denied the Grim Reaper his take.”

One of the best Viet Nam memoirs ever to cross my desk. It is devoid of apology or pretention. Simply a well written & gripping collection of memories.

Very well done! A must for military readers.

More from Tony Lazzarini:
Never Trust a Man in Curlers
(08/24/03)

Rebecca