Vietnam Aviation

Revised and updated version! STEPHEN COONTS, NY Times best-selling author of Flight of the Intruder -- “D. D. Smith's personal memoir of his years in naval aviation is more than a ‘I was there’ tale. He captures the myriad of challenges that was Naval Aviation before the Vietnam War. When I arrived in the fleet, D. D. Smith and his compadres were the squadron execs or COs who led us nuggets into the inferno of Vietnam… A huge tip of the hat to D.D. Smith. This book will appeal to every naval aviator or NFO of whatever era. Highly recommended.” But the book is much more. It is a ...

Second Edition of ACEThis latest edition is truly a game-changer. Chapter 28, "The Battle of Phu My," is packed with new material discovered during the exhaustive research for Ace Cozzalio’s Medal of Honor submission. But that's not all - the entire book has been enhanced to create a more captivating and compelling reading experience. With an extra thirty-six pages and ten new images, this improved version is an absolute must-read! ACE is the gripping tale of Ace Cozzalio, a bold and courageous U.S. Army helicopter pilot who flew with Lighthorse Air Cavalry during the Vietnam War. The ...

The author, a retired Navy Commander, presents a unique view of the Vietnam War while providing an understanding of the horror, brutality, chaos, and insanity of war. His interviews with 61 members of the U.S. Naval Academy Class of 1965 who served during the war in Vietnam include candid, first-hand accounts of American action on the ground, in the air, on the rivers, and offshore. Their stories involve Marines fighting bloody battles for hills soon abandoned after being captured; Naval aviators watching their wingman being shot down on missions targeting meaningless targets while Hanoi ...

Have you ever wanted to pull up the curtain and look at what the US Army was really like during the Vietnam War? From enlistment through Basic, Officer, and Flight training, veteran pilot Richard Guay will take you on a journey many have never witnessed… Sit with Richard in the cockpit of the venerable UH-1 Huey helicopter as he maneuvers the sky to accomplish missions, protect his troops, and put to the test his years of training to stop the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia. Through a journey from steamy jungles to war-torn skies over battlefields, Richard’s raw and informative ...

…Ben Het has tanks in the wire! “Hawk Claw is engaging,” the pilot reports firing the first TOW missile ever from a helicopter in combat. Fire Base Delta had already been over run and Fire Base Charlie was fighting for its life. How much would fall before the North Vietnamese army was knocking on the doors of the key city of Kontum? This was the third phase of the North Vietnamese Easter Offensive Campaign of 1972. Standing across the country between them and the fall of Saigon was a poorly led South Vietnamese Army, brave South Vietnamese soldiers, and US Advisors. How much ground ...

Catkiller 3-2 provides unique insights into the role of the tactical air controller, airborne (TACA) in I Corps as seen through the eyes of one of the pilots who flew low-flying, unarmed, single-engine aircraft in support of marine ground units during the Vietnam War. When Gen. William Westmoreland changed the marines' role in I Corps into a combat one, the Marines found themselves in need of more fixed wing aircraft to handle the TACA missions.

The author was drawn into the United States Army through ROTC, and he went through training to fly helicopters in combat over Vietnam. His experiences are notable because he flew both Huey “Slicks” and Huey “Gunships”: the former on defense as he flew troops into battle, and the latter on offense as he took the battle to the enemy. Through this book, the author relives his experiences flying and fighting, with special attention given to his and other pilots’ day-to-day lives.

From March 1965-December 1972 the United States carried out the longest sustained naval aerial bombardment campaign in the history of modern warfare. By the time the conflict formally ended in January 1973 nearly 600 Navy aviators had lost their lives in Southeast Asia. Many of those men remain missing, with their ultimate fates unlikely to ever be known. Every cat shot, every mission, and every recovery aboard the carrier was a roll of the dice on whether they would live, die, or be taken prisoner and brutally tortured or murdered. Even as losses mounted and public support for the conflict...

The Sky Above Vietnam Was A Hunting Ground And the hunters flew a gunship called Spectre. A Secret War in the Darkness Deep within the jungles of Southeast Asia, the Ho Chi Minh Trail pulsed with the lifeblood of the North Vietnamese war machine. Convoys of trucks carried weapons, fuel, and soldiers through the night, hidden beneath the dense jungle canopy.Destroying them was nearly impossible.Until the United States Air Force unleashed a weapon unlike anything the enemy had ever seen.The AC-130 Spectre gunship. The Night Reaper of the Jungle Major Jack Calvorsen and the crew of Spectre 17 ...

This is the first in a series of true stories about a young helicopter pilot’s tour of duty in Vietnam.

Echoes Above the Jungle: A Pilot’s Journey Through Vietnam is a gripping, haunting memoir that pulls readers into the cockpit of a Chinook helicopter, revealing the harrowing, adrenaline-fueled life of a combat pilot during one of America’s most brutal wars. For David "D.J." Collier, the Vietnam War was a world unto itself—a landscape of dense jungles, winding rivers, and silent mountains that became both ally and enemy. With raw authenticity and razor-sharp detail, Collier recounts the missions that pushed him to the edge: extracting troops under heavy fire, navigating impossible ...

“A GRIPPING CLASSIC. Exhaustively researched, The Hunter Killers puts you directly into a Wild Weasel fighter cockpit during the Vietnam War. Dan Hampton lets you feel it for yourself as no one else could.”--Colonel LEO THORSNESS, Wild Weasel pilot and Medal of Honor recipient At the height...

This is part two of a series of true stories about a young helicopter pilot's tour of duty in Vietnam.

THE WAR IN VIETNAM WAS FOUGHT IN THE JUNGLE. BUT SOME OF THE MOST DANGEROUS BATTLES HAPPENED IN THE SKY ABOVE IT. A Hidden War in the Air Above the dense green mountains of Vietnam, the enemy moves unseen. Supply convoys slip along the Ho Chi Minh Trail beneath thick jungle canopy. Anti-aircraft guns hide beneath the trees. Entire battalions vanish into the shadows before American forces can find them. The only men who can expose them are the forward air controllers flying the OV-10 Bronco. Slow. Vulnerable. Deadly accurate. Their job is simple on paper and nearly impossible in reality. Fly...

AIRMAN OVER VIETNAM The F-4 Phantom Story The Sky Was the Most Dangerous Battlefield of the Vietnam War The Vietnam War was fought in jungles thick with heat and monsoon rain. But far above the dense canopy, another war raged—one fought at supersonic speeds where survival depended on courage, skill, and the nerve to face death in the open sky. In the cockpit of the legendary F-4 Phantom II, American fighter pilots launched into some of the most dangerous airspace on Earth. Their enemies were everywhere. Soviet-built radar stations tracked them. Surface-to-air missiles exploded without ...

The 'Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club' was the tongue-in-cheek nickname of the US Seventh Fleet that was stationed off the coast of Vietnam and this book tells the full story of the US Naval air campaign in the Vietnam War from 1965 to 1975.

This is episode seven in a series of true stories about a young helicopter pilot's tour of duty in Vietnam.

You are with the author when he ejects from his burning Navy jet onto a karst ridge near Hanoi. What follows in this meticulously researched memoir is an account of one of the most implausible and heroic rescues of the air-war - and the aftermath. The events immediately following his rescue carry the author to a secret base in Laos and then to a makeshift hospital in Saigon. The larger story, however, is of the author’s complex relationship with Vietnam. It begins in Saigon, where he completes high school and comes to love the Vietnamese people.

MiGs Over Nevada (CIA Area 51 Chronicles – Book 4) By TD Barnes Captured Soviet fighters. Top-secret dogfights. The CIA’s covert air war at Area 51. With the retirement of the A-12 reconnaissance plane, Area 51 seemed destined for a quieter existence. But instead, it became the center of a groundbreaking intelligence operation that would transform U.S. aerial warfare forever. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), in partnership with the CIA, U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Navy, launched an unprecedented program to exploit captured Soviet MiG aircraft, revealing enemy capabilities and ...

Anybody who’s ever flown should read this book. Is the pilot the only person who should concern you? From the moment the pilot leaves the gate until he’s once-again parked at his destination, he doesn’t turn, climb, descend, or even change his speed without ATCs approval. Who are these weird ducks who operate the safest ATC system in the world? What motivates them to play this real life video game with neither a Pause nor Reset button? Follow along with Carl’s career, from tiny radar van in the Central Highlands of Vietnam to some of the nation’s busiest air control TRACONs. At ...