No Reason for Dying: A Reluctant Combat Pilot's Confession of Hypocrisy, Infidelity and War

by Brian H. Settles

Book Overview

Retired airline captain Brian Howard Settles tells a gripping true story of his war experience as a reluctant Air Force combat pilot and the internal battle with himself in search of his morality. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1439236232
• ISBN13: 9781439236239
• Release Date: July 2009
• Publisher: Booksurge Publishing
• Length: 490 Pages
• Weight: 1.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

From A Woman's Point Of View

Had this book not been a gift I probably would have passed it over but out of curiosity I picked it up and thought "What the heck..." I was completely TETHERED from the first page! "No Reason For Dying" by Brian H. Settles is an awakening. Masquerading as autobiographical the gripping page-turner is much more. Steve Canyon Meets Dennis The Menace....The Right Stuff, In The Wrong Place. For one, it is an incite into the Male Machismo. The author has a definite way with words. When he describes climbing into his fighter jet you can feel the upholstery, hear the shrieking engines and smell his breath. His skill of recall of the tiniest details is amazing but again its these details which give flavor to the potato salad. The "unromantic romanticist" gets into so many tight situations you have to remind yourself he wrote the book so he MUST have lived through it but at the time you're not so sure he will survive. I loved the humor. "Humor?" you say, but yes it is comic relief from his painful emotional roller-coaster. References to James Dean's "Rebel Without a Clue" are priceless even if intended to be self-deprecating. All of the above describes the entertaining part of the book but the end has words of wisdom that every American President needs to hear before he sends one more human being to try to survive the Hell of war. Lets fix our flats before we buy tires for the rest of the world. The scars of the author's early life have been transformed into a roadmap for humanity. It helps fill the gaps that society and history have left for us when dealing with each other.

What a ride

An excellent read. Not only an extraordinary view into the life of a fighter pilot, but also an even more intense look into the small blocks that build into the structure of ones life. The racial issues that anglos may have never considered. The conflicting, yet unavoidable dance that the loneliness of a warrior in a foreign land invites. The granting of a license to infidelity and day to day survival techniques to maintain ones sanity all fueled by the high testosterone level of a twenty something. An intense and honest baring of a soul.

NRFD: An excellent, insightful and unforgettable experience.

No Reason for Dying is everyman's tortuous journey within himself to courageously confront and answer the gut-wrenching questions of life for meaning, manhood and humanity. For Captain B. Settles he not only waged battle in service of his country, risking life and limb, but also he waged a greater battle to save his soul from doubt, abandonment, mistrust, ambiguity, and uncertainty. His journey offers a raw, unabridged, no holds barred view into the life of a combat pilot and into the private life of a human being. Never safe from the enemy even at 35,000 feet, Brian "Bee" Settles was also never safe from his endless, self-inflicted persecutions and struggle for identity. Kudos to the author for his unyielding iron will and profound courage to reveal his soul, his search and his success.

NRFD: A Fascinating Story from Start to Finish!

No other book about the Vietnam War and one man's vivid account of its affect on his professional and private life has been penned in such exceptional revelation and clarity through the prism of war. Profound in its understanding and compassionate in its human portrayals, this Fighter Pilot's testimony puts into sharp focus the high human cost of combat. A moving, honest account with precise details of the common horrors of warfare, it is a story Bee Settles tells with absolute freshness, clarity and unbinding truthfulness. Expertly written with a deep appreciation for the sacrifices of his Air Force comrades who were lost in battle, this gripping account of his nearly two hundred combat missions in the cockpit of the F-4 Phantom is an absolute work of art! Complete with acrid moments of near death as enemy ground fire and tracer rounds hurled past his canopy during strikes over Vietnam to his deep concern and worry for family back home is breathtaking from start to finish. Tempered with the author's brilliant account of his private and personal struggles while prosecuting a vicious war which he, himself sometimes questioned has been eloquently captured on paper. I salute Brian "Bee" Settles for his patriotism, valor, honor as a fellow warrior and courage to tell his story! Of the myriad of history books, personal stories of combatants, military manuscripts and other accounts of that convulsive period of our military history that I have read and closely studied during my 27 years of military service in the combat arms, none comes close to Bee's graphic description of life, personal trials and triumphs in that danger zone called the Vietnam War! God Bless you my comrade! Simply Outstanding! Scott Mahone, Lieutenant Colonel, US Army (Retired) Air Defense Artillery