Bob Sloan, a young helicopter repair and design technician for Atlanta, Georgia, based HeloTechnologies. Sloan has spent six years in the Navy working on choppers on aircraft carriers, and four years in the civilian world working for Helo Tech. Atlanta, Georgia. Oppertunity knocks and Sloan volunters for an assignment in Vietnam as a civilan tech rep. The money sounds good. He knows nothing about warfare, the jungle, or Vietnam, other than what he has seen on the TV news, but, he reasons, it makes no difference as he will be on a big safe base somewhere fixing helos and not involved in the Army way of life. On his first day in Vietnam the helicopter he is riding in is shot down over the A Shau Valley, known as The Arizona. He is the only survivor and has no idea how to survive or get out of the heavy combat zone. He is just starting to figure things out when he is captured by the Viet Cong.