perhaps chickenhawk is more akin to 'permission to kill', a fiction based of a door gunner on 'polution IV'
the smoke screen ship .
the Author (name evades me & i don't have a copy) uses fictitious characters, but all tales are based on true accounts/incidents, that the author has collated into a single characters' vietnam experience.
At least that author pointed this out in the prologue.
A pity about chickenhawks integrity, still makes for a good read though.