Reviews

Heath Metzger – son of surviving veteran Harlen Metzger
“Thank you for your beautiful work Jack. My father, Harlen, had a difficult time talking about his time in Vietnam and especially this helicopter crash. This story you’re telling is such a gift.”

Cindy Pratt Brown – Carey Pratt’s niece
“I grew up never really understanding what had happened. I pray the Truth will provide tremendous healing to our entire Family.”

Barbara Martin – sister of Dennis Martin
“There were so many things that were healing. More books need to be written like yours.”

Larry Butcher – Vietnam veteran, served with Carey Pratt and Harlen Metzger
“You have done an excellent job of telling the stories of the people involved in the action that day and the pain the families and friends have and are still going thru. As I was reading, I was thinking about what the Vietnamese people are going through, the same pain suffering for their lost loved ones. Jack, this is an excellent book! One everyone, including those that were protesting and treating us with disrespect, should read.

Thomas Pratt – brother of Carey Pratt
“With great writing and meticulous research, Jack McCabe tells the story as only a veteran could, of Helicopter 999 and its ill-fated soldiers that has been begging to be told for more than fifty years. I and many other members of our family have never been able to fully accept my kid brother Carey’s horrific death as a result of 999’s demise on that fateful day in the jungles of Vietnam. It is as if he is still here somewhere, still twenty-one years old, and will one day visit us all, with his familiar chubby-cheeked smile. Jack’s book is helpful with its many stories of Carey and his comrades. It lends a bit of reality to an otherwise unbelievable event. To all survivors who have lost a loved one to war, and especially to the families of all those lost and maimed that horrific day, I send our family’s most sincere condolences.”

Rickey Wittner – crew chief of #07999
Well I finally read all of the book. Took me awhile cause had to stop many times. I have told many friends about the book, each one wants to know when it will be printed, and cost. Man you did a fine JOB on this book. I can’t wait to get several copies for my family.

Tom Myers
I found your 2nd book a great read. I really appreciated the personal stories about each person on 999. Many brought me to tears. You did a great job of researching their lives. Thanks

Gregory Conners
I am grateful for this book. This book was brought to my attention by Larry Butcher, my recently-retired optician. We had discussed ‘Nam a bit, me from a perspective three years younger but with a low draft number, Larry from his as described in the book. I graduated from high school a month before the action described in Those Left Behind. As unjustifiable as the war was in many ways, the courage and love and the examples set for the future, by people like the men in this book, will live on. Thank you for writing this, and Larry, thanks for sharing. In a remarkable coincidence, my 44 year-old son died in his sleep on July 10, 2020. Fifty years have passed since your losses. More people share them than you can know. God Bless.

Marcia Hudson
Eye Opener!
This was the best written book I have read! Knowing the family it was very insightful book and was very graphic in its content finally found out what really happened to our family’s loved one. Highly recommend!

Thomas W. Newton
Truth be told.
I liked this book for it’s honesty and truthfulness. I flew on Chinooks for the First Air Cavalry in 1967-8. But up North , the entire year. I consider Jack to be a good friend because of his straight forward news and honesty, just as this book has been written.

James Diefenbach
A MUST READ!!!!! NEVER FORGET!!!!!!!!!!
This is a must read for the younger generation who have no idea what it was like to get DRAFTED and sent to Viet Nam to die!

Larry Murley
That the stories of Viet Nam need to be told.
Jack McCabe has done a masterful job, of outlining the lives of these young American in Viet Nam, before they lost their innocence, in that land 15,000 miles from home and all that they knew to be real and safe. He delved into their backgrounds, their needs, their desires, then follows them to Viet Nam, and their year, or more of service to the Vietnamese people. For those who have never been there, or any other war torn country, it changes one’s perspective on life, and death. And death, that unwanted visitor, shadows one for that time, “in country”. This story, touches the heart strings, as it is told over the 304 pages of his book, and then to some, the story came home with them. Most of these young men’s stories came home with them, in one way or another, either a physical wound, or by emotional scar. Jack allowed me the honor of reading his story, before publication, for which I felt honored, I am so immeasurably glad he did. Please take the time to read, “Those Left Behind” by Jack McCabe, you will be glad you did.

VN DD
A Story that Needed to be Told
An unusual story about the war in Vietnam, told from the perspective of those who were part of a tragic event and by their families and their friends. One doesn’t always get to know how the people who loved the victims felt, then and for years after, but Jack McCabe was able to reach out to many of the families, wives, and others and help us to understand the many emotions that follow the funerals or the physical recoveries of those involved. I have read many books about the involvement of Americans in Vietnam. I rank this one as one of the best.

Marc Liebman
There’s probably not one person who will read this review in The Aviator who does not have one or more friends on The Wall in Washington, D.C. Most who write books about their war experiences talk about their friends, some of whom were maimed, some who were killed and in one way or the other, talk about how we all were changed. So, books like Those Left Behind that are dedicated to those who didn’t come home to spend the rest of their lives with loved ones are rare. They are also hard to read, not because of the writing which in McCabe’s book is excellent, but because of the content. Those Left Behind is a poignant reminder of the cost of war or worse, foreign policy decisions made by people who will never see a green tracer, or worse, hear the sickening, hydraulic sound of bullet striking flesh. My hat’s off to Jack McCabe for writing this book. The words just suck long suppressed emotions right out of your brain. Those Left Behind should be required reading for all those whole make decisions to send America’s youth off to war. Thanks Jack.