In early 1981, while awaiting trial on the criminal charges, Mason learned that Viking Press had purchased Chickenhawk and started work on finishing the book. As he puts it "I found out I could be bought." In January 1981 he was arrested with a boatload of marijuana from Colombia in a creek in South Carolina. He decided to take a job sailing as a deckhand on a 30-foot boat to Colombia. "it is good but no one wants to read about Vietnam"), Mason was running a paper route each night, 100 miles on back roads, and his car blew up. While waiting to see whether Burger could sell the book, after several rejections (i.e. Knox agreed to offer the book to publishers. By February 1980, Mason had a 200-page partial manuscript (about one-third), and an outline of the rest of his memoir. The first chapter written became the fifth chapter in the finished book. He began writing Chickenhawk on while living in Florida. Mason was encouraged to write his Vietnam memoir by Knox Burger, the editor of an author-friend of Mason (Bill Smith, better known as Martin Cruz Smith).
The book chronicles his enlistment, flight training, deployment to and experiences in Vietnam, and his experiences after returning from the war. Chickenhawk is Robert Mason's narrative of his experiences as a "Huey" UH-1 Iroquois helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War.
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