Jack Broughton (1925–2014)

More Jack Broughton, fighter pilot. In fact, some repeated memories--the first two thirds of the book was repeated and should be skimmed if the reader has already consumed "Thud Ridge." The last third was all about his courts martial and John Ryan, bad 4-star bomber pilot with a vindictive bent. The fighter guys were fighting a war and wanted things that they couldn't get from the Johnson administration; which may have caused an incident that the Russians complained about. The court martial, chaired by Broughton protege Chuck Yeager, was the institutional Air Force's response--perhaps spurred by an unknown actor in Washington DC. Excitement and intrigue abounds, but maybe just because of a 4-star with a vendetta?… (mehr)

The very tactical story of a fighter pilot during the Vietnam war. This story goes very well with the story of Robin Olds. The author, Jack Broughton, was a seasoned fighter pilot and was serving as the vice commander of the Air Force wing at Takhli, Thailand. Flying and fighting, it also contains several vignettes about other people who helped in the effort, the base civil engineer and the chaplain for example. Broughton also discusses the poignant stories of attacks on Hanoi and lost buddies--I'd like to find out how they fared. Besides the yank and bank of the fighter pilot's world, we also got a glimpse of the amount of [idiotic] control placed on the people who fought...a ultimately a symptom of LBJ's dirt poor childhood. Lives were lost because of it. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.… (mehr)

This is Jack Broughton's sequel to Thud Ridge. As an F-105 Thunderchief pilot during the Vietnam War, he flew many missions over North Vietnam, some of which are retold in this book (the first book does some of them as well). Often hamstrung by rules of engagement established by politicians without regard to military necessity or survival, he became disenchanted with the leadership and soon was flagged as a troublemaker. Broughton was finally court martialed for attacking ships in Haiphong harbor. They were made strictly off-limits by the politicians because some were Russian, but many mounted anti-aircraft guns and shot down American pilots. Broughton finally became so incensed at this that he strafed the ships on one mission. He was court martialed and convicted. Much later Congress overturned the conviction, but much too late to be of use to Broughton. The latter part of the book relates the story of the legal proceeding and the subsequent actions Broughton took to publicize the government's cover up of it's ineptness.

I would recommend this book for those who are interested in the air war in Vietnam. It does rather bog down towards the end in the politics, but should be considered a necessary read for those of the current generation who may not be aware of how badly the Vietnam air war was conducted by Washington.… (mehr)