A Duck Looking for Hunters: A Bird Dog FAC's True Story

“A Duck Looking for Hunters” is Capt Dale Amend’s first person true experience story as a Bird Dog FAC in Vietnam in 1965-66. The Forward Air Controller (FAC) flew alone in an unarmed airplane about as heavy as a Toyota Corolla and traveled about as fast, 75 knots. The FAC directed all air strikes in South Vietnam. He frequently operated just over the treetops. The losses of airplanes and pilots were large. Bird Dog FACs had a high profile job, full of drama and danger. The central theme of the book is the FAC business of controlling air strikes, but the scope of the book is broad. It includes Green Berets, bets over catching rats, Christian missionaries --- the Real Warriors, black market and prostitution, the ineptness of the Vietnamese military, the Worst Officer, the Best FAC, Christmas and Easter music recorded and sent back home, heroes and traitors, culture of the native Montagnards, happy homecoming and much more.