Midair

By: Craig K. Collins

Narrated by: Craig K. Collins

Midair is a true account of one of the most remarkable tales of survival in the history of aviation - a midair collision at 30,000 feet by two bomb-laden B-52s over a category 5 super typhoon above the South China Sea during the outset of the Vietnam War.

Authored by Craig K. Collins, the nephew of B-52 pilot Maj. Don Harten, Midair is an historically important work that is about more than survival. Interwoven through Harten's dramatic story of his million-to-one struggle against near-certain death is a previously unexamined look at how America had developed an aerial battle plan that would likely have ended the Vietnam conflict in under a month during the late winter of 1965. Instead the country's war planners and politicians veered off course and into a bloody eight-year quagmire. Harten was on the February 1965 top secret mission - a massive B-52 bombing raid of railways, supply depots, and airfields in and around Hanoi - that was called off in midflight. That mission and battle plan were mothballed until December 18, 1972, when it was dusted off and dubbed Linebacker II, effectively ending the war within a week. Over 120 B-52s bombed Hanoi-area military installations for eight consecutive days. As a result of the heavy bombing, the North Vietnamese declared a truce, attended peace talks in Paris in early January, and signed the Paris Peace Accords, ending hostilities in Vietnam on January 27, 1973.

It is the gripping tale of a young air force officer's first combat mission that instantly pulls the listener in and never lets up.

©2016 Craig K. Collins (P)2017 Audible, Inc.