On Sat, 22 May 2004 07:46:55 GMT, Guy Alcala
wrote:

Robey Price wrote:

After an exhausting session with Victoria's Secret Police, Guy Alcala
confessed the following:

I'll take "Going Downtown" over "Thud Ridge".

I've read Thud Ridge at least 6 times, but Going Downtown only once. I
was put off with a minor detail, his description of an RF-101
shootdown in Nov 1964. He sorta kinda has the name right, Bert Walls
(IIRC) is actually Burt Waltz (currently residing near Hickam AFB)
and some of the cavalier attitude (IMO) he attributed to BW is not how
Burt remembers it.

I enjoyed Thud Ridge, primarily because at the time it came out it was
the only available book telling the story of the F-105 air war. I
faulted it for being a bit too heavy on the braggadocio and too
heavily weighted into MiGs that were few and far between. It still
conveyed a sense of the intensity of the mission and the frustrations
that we all felt.

Alas I donated "Going Downtown," to my local library. Guy, unlike you
I buy lots of books, parting with them is almost unthinkable, no
qualms with GD.

I couldn't stand Going Downtown. The whole purpose of the book was an
excuse for Broughton's actions in the Turkestan scandal. Years after
the events he still couldn't acknowledge the impropriety of his
actions and he still wanted to blame someone else for the collapse of
his promising career.

Last year in Las Vegas I had the chance to talk at length with Robin
Olds regarding Turkestan. Robin was commanding the 8th TFW at Ubon at
the time and was airborne nearby during the strafing. He recounted the
specificity of the morning briefing on the location of the ship and
the prohibition against attacking it. When he saw the activity going
on from his location several miles north along the coast, he knew
someone had screwed up big-time.

Olds was tasked to conduct the initial investigation and remains quite
knowledgeable on the events.

I'd be sleeping in the car with the books overflowing the house if I bought
everything I read. I confess to having problems with Broughton's idiosyncratic
spelling in "GD" ('Oerlicon,' indeed), and "Thud Ridge" is better writing, but I
know the story -- I'm after the technical stuff, and "GD" provides more of that
than "TR".

Seems the "technical stuff" of GD is mostly legalistic and the Uniform
Code of Military Justice.

As would I. Gene Basel's "Pak Six" is okay, but less informative in the areas
of interest to me..

I also like Al Lenski's "Magic 100."

Here's the link to Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...books&n=507846

You've left out "Alpha Strike Vietnam," a chronological collection by year of
firsthand accounts. Kind of like "Fast Movers," but unlike most such
collections, this one concentrates on the attack pilots flying
A-1/A-4/A-6/A-7, irather than the fighters.

I enjoyed ASV, couldn't finish FM (and yet I liked Sherwood's Korean
effort "Offiecers in flight Suits."). FM suffered the same fate as GD
and now resides in a local library.

I wasn't all that impressed by it either - ISTR that Sherwood lacked aviation
background, which tended to throw jarring notes into the book that would bring me
up[ short. But I got to read the short form of Ed's 105 tour before he wrote
"WTR," plus I though the chapter on Robin Olds was pretty good (for his
personality, if not the accuracy of the facts cited).

John Sherwood is an historian (Official Historian USN is his job
title.) He is an excellent researcher, but not an aviator. Regardless,
Fast Movers is a pretty good compilation of oral history interviews.
He didn't do too badly in recounting the results of my interviews and
could only find one or two minor misstatements.

Robin Olds, however, claims he will rip John's beating heart from his
chest should they ever meet again. Robin seems upset at the
characterization as a hard-drinking, hard-fighting, womanizing,
hell-raiser that Sherwood drew. Actually, it seems spot on to me!

Sherwood's got a new one out, "Afterburner"--more oral history, this
time of USN operations over North Vietnam from Yankee Station. (Not
sure about the title--since most of the USN aircraft didn't have A/B,
e.g. A-4, A-7, A-6, A-1, A-3D.

Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8