Missions of Fire and Mercy: Until Death Do Us Part

With addition of William Peterson's book, Military-Writers.com now lists 1246 US Military Servicemembers and the 3955 books they have authored.

William “Bill” Peterson was raised in Michigan's Upper Peninsula where he learned how to hunt, and was taught by his father to make every shot count. Little did he know at the time, that this training would be extremely useful within just a few short years..


His father, Gene, was a B-17 pilot and spoke often of his hitch in the US Air Corp during WWII. He instilled on his family a great sense of patriotism. At the age of 18, Bill not only enlisted and signed up to be a Huey helicopter crew chief, but when asked in Basic Training for his first and second choice of assignment, he said “Vietnam”. The sergeant asking the question was very surprised, but said that would be guaranteed. After watching helicopters in action on the nightly news, he wanted a part of it.

After 36 Air medals, (2 with Valor), 3 Purple Hearts, and numerous other awards, he got more than he had hoped for. Bill is a member of The National Purple Heart Hall of Fame. William Peterson is also the author of Missions of Fire and Mercy: Until Death Do Us Part.

According to the book description of Missions of Fire and Mercy: Until Death Do Us Part, it “is the story of his unit in Vietnam; C/227th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Air Cavalry. His unit was responsible for supporting our U.S. Army, Special Forces, ARVN, Korean ROK troops, Australian and other Allied troops. Charlie company flew a potpourri of missions including, but not limited to: Combat assault and recovery, support for troops in every way including ammo, food, water convoy protection , medevac missions, and aerial surveillance of battlegrounds, before, during and after the fight. BDA (Bomb damage assessment) consisting of surveying what was left after B52 strikes, and counting enemy bodies. The majority of these true, and all too often horrific incidents took place between An Khe, the Central Highlands, Camp Evans in I Corp, the Ashau Valley and Laos.

The goal of this story is to reach out to families and loved ones who never understood why their “warrior” has been so quiet about Vietnam. Hopefully, this will help you to have a better firsthand view of those men and women, and what they went through. The author also hopes this will bring healing to those who served in combat, and help them realize that their memories are not faulty. These things did happen, and they can and should be proud to have served so honorably and bravely.”