THE DOOM PUSSY

The Doom Pussy crouches in wait for American pilots when they fly their missions over North Vietnam. Elaine Shepard has been there and seen the Pussy. She has brought back a bouncy recall of the men in the air and on the ground, whether flying into the jaws of the terrible cat or tearing shirts afterwards to let off steam. She came to know Smash, beseeched and sought after by the passionate Mercy Belle back in the States, and Nails, who beseeched and sought after her. She joined in their revels and their raids, moves from ribaldry and revelry at R&R (rest and recreation) periods to the tense and trying moments of combat. ""The sharpest Negro pilot in Vietnam"" died in her arms after they had been shot down and picked up; she saw Dickey Chapelle ""crumpled on her right side in the weeds and dirt like a broken doll."" From such experiences is hard to be neutral, and she closes her book with George Washington's words: ""If we desire to secure peace, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war."" This is a book about the flyboys, held aloft by admiration for their courage and understanding of their off-duty flings. It has glamor and guts, and may well hit a market no other Vietnam book has, the ladies.