During a tour with The Historical Unit, U.S. Army Medical Department, Fort Detrick, Maryland, from 1974 to 1977, Peter G. Dorland, then a captain and a former Dust Off pilot in Vietnam, completed the basic research for this book and drafted a lengthy manuscript. In the first seven months of 1981, as an editor at the U.S. Army Center of Military History (CMH), Washington, D.C., I conducted further research on Dust Off, reorganized and redrafted portions of the original manuscript, and added Chapter 4 and the Epilogue.

The authors accumulated a store of debts, both at Fort Detrick and Washington. Albert E. Cowdrey, chief of the Medical History Branch (CMH), supervised the project, improving the manuscript's prose and organization in many places, and saw that the revision received a review by other historians at the Center: Stanley L. Falk, George L. MacGarrigle, and Jeffrey Greenhut. Col. James W. Dunn's critical eye also improved the substance of the book. The final editing and preparation of the book for publication was the work of Edith M. Boldan. Arthur S. Hardyman helped design the cover and the map.

Others at the Center who responded to frequent pleas for assistance were Charles Simpson, Col. Mary Van Harn, Charles Ellsworth, Geraldine Judkins, Mary Gillett, Dwight Oland, Graham Cosmas, Vincent Demma, Jeffrey Clarke, and my coworkers in the Editorial Branch.

Without the help of these many people, Peter Dorland and I could not have produced this book. The authors, of course, accept sole responsibility for any errors.

Washington, D.C. 18 January 1982

JAMES NANNEY