Feed Your Bookcase...and Your Mind

Posted By Pinch

A couple of books you all should go hunt down to wet your aeronautical taste buds for what flying a Navy jet in Vietnam was like. 

One out already via US Naval Institute Press is called Rescue of Streetcar 304: A Navy Pilot's Forty Hours on the Run in Laos.

The synopsis says it all:

On 31 May 1968, Lt. Kenny Fields catapulted off USS America in his A-7 for his first combat mission. His target was in Laos, which at the time was “officially” off-limits for U.S. attacks. What the planners did not know was that Fields and his wingman were en route to a massive concentration of AAA gun sites amidst an entire North Vietnamese division.

   Fields—call sign Streetcar 304—was the first to roll in and destroyed the target with a direct hit. Three AAA guns began to fire, but, following his wingman, he rolled in again. This time many more AAA guns opened up and Fields was shot down.
   'The Rescue of Streetcar 304' is Fields exhilarating narrative of the forty hour ordeal that followed, and what turned out to be one of the largest air rescues of the Vietnam War.

The other book is not out yet but I am highlighting excerpts on my blog at the Instapinch.

Your Signal Is Charley is an autobiographical fiction by Ron Rypel, a Vietnam A-4 pilot flying off USS Kitty Hawk.  Ryp's main character, LT Harry Ferguson, based on his own experience, finally got so fed up with the "rules of engagement" he made the difficult decision to leave the Navy.  Ryp's detailed descriptions of launching off a carrier, flying into North Vietnam and having to deal with an increasingly frustrating set of combat restrictions are superb and well worth the read.

Check 'em out.

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Feed Your Bookcase...and Your Mind

A couple of books you all should go hunt down to wet your aeronautical taste buds for what flying a Navy jet in Vietnam was like. 

One out already via US Naval Institute Press is called Rescue of Streetcar 304: A Navy Pilot's Forty Hours on the Run in Laos.

The synopsis says it all:

On 31 May 1968, Lt. Kenny Fields catapulted off USS America in his A-7 for his first combat mission. His target was in Laos, which at the time was “officially” off-limits for U.S. attacks. What the planners did not know was that Fields and his wingman were en route to a massive concentration of AAA gun sites amidst an entire North Vietnamese division.

   Fields—call sign Streetcar 304—was the first to roll in and destroyed the target with a direct hit. Three AAA guns began to fire, but, following his wingman, he rolled in again. This time many more AAA guns opened up and Fields was shot down.
   'The Rescue of Streetcar 304' is Fields exhilarating narrative of the forty hour ordeal that followed, and what turned out to be one of the largest air rescues of the Vietnam War.

The other book is not out yet but I am highlighting excerpts on my blog at the Instapinch.

Your Signal Is Charley is an autobiographical fiction by Ron Rypel, a Vietnam A-4 pilot flying off USS Kitty Hawk.  Ryp's main character, LT Harry Ferguson, based on his own experience, finally got so fed up with the "rules of engagement" he made the difficult decision to leave the Navy.  Ryp's detailed descriptions of launching off a carrier, flying into North Vietnam and having to deal with an increasingly frustrating set of combat restrictions are superb and well worth the read.

Check 'em out.

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