Guns on fighters?

"Mike Kanze" wrote:

Ed,

F-105 Wild Weasel "Bear."

That's as in "trained bear" - F-105 WW backseater, right?

Mos' Definitely!

Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (ret)
***"When Thunder Rolled:
*** An F-105 Pilot Over N. Vietnam"
*** from Smithsonian Books
ISBN: 1588341038

(Pechs1) wrote in message ...
Got it yesterday and it looks like a great read(loved the part about the BOQ).
Any other books you can recommend about the air war in VN, other than the
excellent suggestions at the beginning of your book?

Don't know which are listed in Ed's book, so this list might be a
little redundant, but here are some I have in my library:

"Scream of Eagles: The Creation of Top Gun and the U.S. Air Victory in
Vietnam"
by Robert K. Wilcox - Out of print (listed on Amazon as used,
available)

"On Yankee Station" by CDR John B Nichols USN(ret)- stll available
from USNI Press.

The following are paperbacks I have - don't know availability.

"Alpha Strike Vietnam" by Jeffrey L. Levinson

"Over the Beach - The Air War in Vietnam" by Zalin Grant

"Feet Wet - Reflections of a Carrier Pilot" by RADM Paul T. Gilchrest.

All are excellent.

John Alger

"John Alger" wrote in message
om...
(Pechs1) wrote in message
...
Got it yesterday and it looks like a great read(loved the part about the
BOQ).
Any other books you can recommend about the air war in VN, other than
the
excellent suggestions at the beginning of your book?


The following are paperbacks I have - don't know availability.

"Alpha Strike Vietnam" by Jeffrey L. Levinson



If this ("Alpha Strike Vietnam") is the same book by the same title I read
several years ago, then I can't recommend it. I thought the first 1/3 was
good, but after that it sounded like a lot of whining. The tone ended up
sounding like: "We're carrier pilots and we're not appreciated enough".
Sorry, but after about the first 1/3 it really got irritating.

While not about Naval Aviators, a book I really did enjoy was "Thud Ridge"
by Jack Broughton.

Just my 2 cents.

(Pechs1) queried:

Any other books you can recommend about the air war in VN?

Ed Rasimus replied:

As history, the best I've seen so far is Wayne Thompson's "To Hanoi
and Back"--it's a good analysis of the air war from the start of
Rolling Thunder to the end of Linebacker.

For the F-105 story, G.I. Basel's relatively short "Pak Six" is
excellent as is Al Lenski's "Magic 100". Jack Broughton's two books,
"Going Downtown" and "Thud Ridge", particularly the latter, deal with
105s in '67, but tend to be a bit self-serving. Ken Bell's "100
Missions North" is a load of crap.

For Linebacker, Jeff Ethell's "One Day in a Long War" cover just
that--May 10th (or 11th?). A pretty intense day in which the AF
attacked the Doumer Bridge again and Cunningham got his three-bagger.
Also Marshall Michel's "11 Days of Christmas" which really hits SAC
leadership hard about the Linebacker II losses.

Zalin Grant's excellent book on F-8 ops from Oriskany, "Over The
Beach".

John Trotti, "Phantom Over Vietnam"--USMC ops, mostly in-country and
Southern panhandle of NVN.

Walter Kross, "Splash One: Air Victory Over Hanoi"--a thinly
fictionalized account of the January '67 "Bolo" raid led by Robin Olds
to sweep the sky of MiGs. Doesn't stretch very far from the historical
facts.

Any of Tom Wilson's excellent trilogy of F-105 Weasel books--"Termite
Hill", "Lucky's Bridge" and "Tango Uniform". Fiction, but heavily
based on Wilson's own experience as an F-105 Wild Weasel "Bear."

Coming to this thread months late, but I collect books about the air war
in Southeast Asia and I can HIGHLY recommend both of the books written by
Marshall Michael:

The Eleven Days of Christmas: America's Last Vietnam Battle

Clashes: Air Combat over North Vietnam 1965-1972

Both can be purchased at Amazon.com. See:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/se...840700-9179029

Of the books recommended by others, I can endorse "Over the Beach" by
Zalin Grant, for its detailed description of the VF guys in an F-8
squadron at the zenith of the air war. Unlike the most other books, which
focus exclusively on the operational aspects, Grant does a good job
describing the character of the men and their lives outside the ready
room.

Finally, any serious student of naval aviation in the Vietnam era should
read Wynn Foster's book entitled "Captain Hook," and "The Heart of a Man"
by Frank and Marilyn Elkins. The first is a memoir by a former A-4
squardron commander who was shot down and lost an arm -- only to return to
active duty. I found Foster's story inspirational without being
self-aggrandizing and that's a tough balance to strike in a memoir. The
Elkins' work is the journal of an A-4 guy who was shot down and killed in
1967. His wife published it posthumously. You cannot read this book and
not be impressed by the terrible cost that the war imposed on naval
aviators and their families. I defy you to read it without crying.

PMB- The Eleven Days of Christmas: America's Last Vietnam Battle BRBR

Read this one and It was like watching 'Braveheart', and really disliking the
English(I am of Scottish heritage), and remembering how much I dislike the
USAF, specifically SAC, really just kidding but the book is excellent!!!


P. C. Chisholm
CDR, USN(ret.)
Old Phart Phormer Phantom, Turkey, Viper, Scooter and Combat Buckeye Phlyer