Above and Beyond When I Have Your Wounded

ABOVE AND BEYOND: When I Have Your Wounded is a sweeping nonfiction account of the helicopter in American warfare-and of the men and women who turned fragile machines into lifelines.

From the jungles of Burma to the streets of Baghdad, author JW Jones traces eight decades of courage in the air. The story begins in World War II, when experimental helicopters like the Sikorsky R-4 and YR-4B were little more than canvas and wood, yet daring pilots such as Lt. Carter Harman used them to perform the first combat rescues in history.

In Korea, the helicopter came of age. The little Bell 47, known to soldiers as the H-13 Sioux, proved that speed and lift could save lives where ambulances could not. At the frozen Chosin Reservoir, the phrase "evacuation by air" meant survival.

By Vietnam, helicopters defined the battlefield. The UH-1 Huey became a symbol of the war and the heartbeat of the medevac mission. Crews called themselves Dust Off, living by the words of Major Charles L. Kelly: "When I have your wounded." Tens of thousands of soldiers owed their lives to the pilots, medics, and crew chiefs who flew into gunfire to keep that promise.

In later decades, helicopters carried the same creed into Mogadishu, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Black Hawks, Apaches, and Chinooks lifted troops into combat, hauled them out of ambushes, and brought the wounded home from city streets and mountain ridges. Technology changed, but the mission never did.

Through firsthand accounts, historical records, and the author's own experience as a Navy helicopter rescue crewman in Vietnam, ABOVE AND BEYOND honors the generations who flew into danger so others might live. It captures the sound, the sacrifice, and the soul of those who went above and beyond-and of the promise that still echoes through every mission: When I have your wounded.