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Title: When Thunder Rolled: An F-105 Pilot Over North Vietnam by Ed Rasimus ISBN: 1-58834-103-8 Publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press Pub. Date: February, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The definition of courage
Comment: In "When Thunder Rolled", the reader does not receive the image of Ed Rasimus as a macho-type fighter pilot. In fact, he actually was thinking of quitting after only one mission. Despite these thoughts, his fear, and idiotic rules of engagement, he completed 100 missions over North Vietnam in an F-105 Thunderchief against some of the most formidable defenses our pilots have flown against. In 1972, he returned for a second tour flying the F-4 Phantom. Truly a remarkable individual.
Rating: 5
Summary: the best combat memoir I've ever read
Comment: This is the best combat memoir I've ever read--any nation, any war, any service. "Raz" sweeps the reader along, from his terror-plagued flight to the war in the coach seat of a 707 jetliner, to the still-terrifying but now-routine flights over North Vietnam in a Republic F-105 Thunderchief. These were missions so perilous that by some measures a pilot had a 50/50 chance of not completing his tour. Raz doesn't blink at any of it--not his own fear, not the bone-headed rules of engagement--and in the end he goes back for another tour. Why? He loved it. I especially liked the dustcover photo: Raz is a more handsome man now than he was at 23, and his "bulletproof" mustache is fuzzier. This is a wonderful book. Buy it. You won't be sorry. -- Dan Ford
Rating: 5
Summary: Each chapter could be a book by itself
Comment: After I read this book, I wrote a letter to the author recommending he expand his last chapter into another book.
As it turns out, Mr Rasimus and I were at the same base at the same time, although I don't think we ever met. At the time, before the Air Force got ECM pods, F-105 losses were staggering. Sometimes several per day were shot down. At one point the odds of surviving a single mission to the Hanoi area were at best 1 in 4. That means that for every flight of four planes that went into the area, AT LEAST one would be shot down. Sometimes all four were lost, but when you took off in your flight of four, you KNEW that one of you wasn't coming back.
Mr. Rasimus does an outstanding job of describing the political climate and the matter of fact way that he and his fellow pilots went about doing a dangerous job with unsuitable equipment under ridiculous rules of engagement (e.g., you must never attack a SAM site unless it attacks you first).
Every morning my alarm clock was the boom of the afterburners of the morning strike taking off. We flew against the same targets every day at the same time from the same direction. I don't know where our biggest enemies were: in North Vietnam, in Moscow, or in the Washington DC mission planning groups.
Anway, this is a great book and a welcome addition to the collection of knowledge of how wars should and should not be fought. I know that writing accurate history is difficult, tedious and fraught with emotion, but I sincerely hope the author accepts my suggestion to add to our sum of knowledge from his first-hand perspective.
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Title: Cheating Death: Combat Air Rescues in Vietnam and Laos by George J. Marrett ISBN: 1588341046 Publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: 100 Missions North: A Fighter Pilot's Story of the Vietnam War by Ken Bell, Ken, Brig, Ge ISBN: 1574886398 Publisher: Brasseys, Inc. Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Pak Six: A True Story by G. I. Basel ISBN: 0515090050 Publisher: Jove Pubns Pub. Date: 01 June, 1992 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Angles of Attack : An A-6 Intruder Pilot's War by PETER HUNT ISBN: 0345451147 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 27 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: To Hanoi and Back: The U.S. Air Force and North Vietnam, 19661973 by Wayne Thompson, Richard P. Hallion ISBN: 1560988770 Publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press Pub. Date: December, 2000 List Price(USD): $31.95 |
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