Wings Over Vietnam

They are America's best fighter pilots -- from the Navy, Air Force, and Marines. Heroes who push the envelope with their machines, their bodies, and the will to fight and win on their... WINGS OF FURY Here, these airborne warriors reveal themselves as never before. Ride shotgun with TOPGUN pilot Dale "Snort" Snodgrass as he becomes the first student pilot ever to land an F-14 Tomcat on an aircraft carrier. Silver Star winner Rob Graeter recalls a Cold War close call as he flew his F-15 Eagle over Soviet waters -- almost triggering World War III. Feel the adrenaline as Brian "Rocky" Fitzpatrick remembers test-flying the F/A-18 Hornet when it suddenly went haywire, leaving him with a crippled plane, a faulty parachute -- and a very long way down.... From the training grounds of Miramar to combat in Vietnam and Desert Storm, these are the stories of those who defend our skies -- and the dramatic evolution of modern air warfare.

"The Right Stuff without the hype, Yeager without the ego."—Washington Post Book World "While the jet-jockey competitiveness, the undercurrent of fear, the victories and foul-ups of jet sweeps have been described many times, few such chronicles have done it so grippingly and with such a ring of accuracy. Mr. Grant explores the emotions felt not only by the men in battle but by the wives and others left behind, and the questions the war raised in their minds. To put in larger context the war's impact on individual participants, the author periodically reviews the high-level struggles over how to fight the air war. "What is most impressive is to find an analysis so clearly stated, so seemingly on track in locating the weak spots in the policies of various political and military officials....Written in a straightforward yet stylish prose, Over the Beach carries tremendous conviction."—Richard Witkin, New York Times Book Review

From 1945 to 1973, more than 100,000 members of the U.S. military were advisors in Vietnam. Of these, 66,399 were combat advisors. Eleven were awarded the Medal of Honor, 378 were killed and 1393 were wounded. Combat advisors lived and fought with South Vietnamese combat units, advising on tactics and weapons and liaising with local U.S. military support. Bob Worthington's first tour (1966-1967) began with training at the Army Special Warfare School in unconventional warfare, Vietnamese culture and customs, advisor responsibilities and Vietnamese language. Once in-country, he acted as senior advisor to infantry defense forces and then an infantry mobile rapid reaction force. Worthington worked alongside ARVN forces, staging operations against Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army units, and coordinated actions with the U.S. Marines. He describes a night helicopter assault by a 320-man ARVN battalion against a 1,200-man NVA regiment. On another night, the Vietcong ceased fire while Worthington arranged a Marine helicopter to medevac a wounded baby.

Official navy historian John Sherwood offers an authoritative social history of the air war, focused around fourteen of these aviators—from legends like Robin Olds, Steve Ritchie, and John Nichols to lesser-known but equally heroic fighters like Roger Lerseth and Ted Sienecki. The war in the skies above Vietnam still stands as the longest our nation has ever fought. For fourteen years American pilots dropped bombs on the Southeast Asian countryside—eventually more than eight million tons of them. In doing so, they lost over 8,588 fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. They did not win the war. Ironically, Vietnam, though one of our least popular wars, produced one of the most effective groups of warriors our nation has ever seen—men of dedication, professionalism, and courage. Sherwood draws on nearly three hundred interviews to tell stories of great pilots and great planes in the words of the men themselves. Fliers recall jets such as McDonnell Douglas's famous F-4 Phantom, "a Corvette with wings"; the F-05 Thunderchief, the workhorse of the war; the F-8 Crusader, the last of the gun fighters; and the block-nosed but revolutionary A-6 Intruder with its fully computerized attack systems, terrain mapping radar, and digital all-weather navigation system. Fast Movers offers fascinating portraits—based on Sherwood's interviews and declassified naval archives—of Vietnam's POWs. Pilots lucky enough to suffer only broken bones and burns from the violence of 1960s-era Martin-Baker ejection seats struggled to find honorable ways to negotiate half-decade-long periods in captivity. Passive resistance, like Commander Jeremiah Denton's famous blinking of TORTURE in Morse Code, was sometimes successful, often brutally reprised. Against all odds, the pilots spawned a culture of success in the midst of failure, frustration, and devastation. Fast Movers captures a hidden and crucial story of America's least successful war.

As hostilities escolate in late 1965, the fates of three men intertwine in Vietnam.

At the end of the Vietnam War, Pan American World Airways successfully evacuated 463 American and Vietnamese civilians on April 24, 1975, aboard a Boeing 747-the last plane out. At the time, Allen H. Topping was serving as the Pan Am Director of South Vietnam and Cambodia and was instrumental in the success of that last flight. Topping lived and worked in South Vietnam for two and a half years. In addition to its global network of scheduled services, Pan Am was also involved in many other rescue and humanitarian operations throughout the world. These operations and missions included the Berlin Airlift, rescue operations from Tehran, operational support for US forces in WW II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and, most recently, the Gulf War. Prior to joining Pan Am Allan Topping worked for the Institute of International Education on and United Airlines in New York City. He joined Pan Am on June 2, 1969 as a sales representative, assigned to the San Francisco sales office. In November of 1972, Al became the Director of Vietnam and Cambodia, based in Saigon, South Vietnam. After managing operations at various stations overseas for almost eight years, he returned to the U.S. in 1982, Pan Am appointed him as Assistant to The Chairman Consumer Affairs. Topping continued to hold other management positions un���� l the company ceased operations on December 4, 1991. For the next 23 years he worked for The Miami-Dade School Board Administration, The Miami Herald and the Miccosukee Golf & Country Club in Miami, Florida. Now fully re���� red Topping is playing lots of golf in Ocala, Florida.