"For 16 years we never knew what really happened to my brother when he disappeared in Laos. John told us the truth in 1982. He tells it here. We are grateful for his efforts. My brother may still be alive." -- Eleanor Bott Gregory, Sister of Russ Bott, MIA, December 2, 1966 "A riveting personal account of the war in Vietnam from a unique perspective--that of a pilot engaged in all facets of the operations. Highly readable, moving, and gripping. Flanagan brings home forcefully the ethical dimension of war--the difficult choices facing a combat pilot; American policy makers not fully committing to the prosecution of the war; and the failure of the media to accurately portray the American involvement in that conflict." -- Dr. Tyrus W. Cobb, President, Business Executives for National Security "Vietnam traumatized the warriors, the families, and the nation. Flanagan lays bare the scars as the healing process continues. Everyone exposed to the Vietnam experience can learn from this book." -- Linda Reinberg, Ph.D., Psychologist Specializing in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Author of In the Field: The Language of the Vietnam War "This is real combat with real people ... it is also a striking story of conscience and conviction in the face of deadly bureaucratic ineptitude." -- Robert H. Baxter, Brigadier General, Retired, Top Gun, 2 tours in Vietnam "This book vividly depicts the warrior spirit of the graduates of the (then new) Air Force Academy who served in the Vietnam War." -- Charles R. Hamm, Lt. Gen. USAF, Retired, Former Superintendent, U.S. Air Force Academy
Introduction Setting the Values Prelude to Combat: Creating a Warrior Orientation and Transition to Combat Defending Highway 1: Phu Cat with the Koreans Clearing the Valley: Koreans Launch Tiger V FACing with the Screaming Eagles at Tuy Hoa Project Delta at Chu Lai: Flying the F-4 The Central Highlands: Battling Monsoons and VC Project Delta in III Corps: Song Be and Tay Ninh Search for F-4 Pilot, Return to War Zone C Battle at Khe Sanh: FAC Shot Down Khe Sanh Again Winding Down: Re-entry into the World The Conflict Continues, the Values Endure Epilogue Glossary Bibliography Index
JOHN F. FLANAGAN was among the first graduates of the United States Air Force Academy and earned an MBA from Boston College. After Vietnam, he worked as an international business executive, a presidential exchange executive, and a college professor and business consultant in New York. He attained the rank of Brigadier General in the Air Force Reserve.
An Air Force officer's vigorous account of the Vietnam
War…Flanagan's memoir is not like Robert Mason's in Chickenhawk
(1983), where the naive young officer is transformed into an
embittered veteran questioning all wars. Flanagan became a general.
His job in Vietnam was to fly close in with small aircraft, to
report and coordinate what he saw; sometimes, too, he had to don
infantry gear and head into the jungle. Many of his blow-by-blow
accounts of battles are drawn from notes…This is the perspective of
a veteran who feels we failed because of a lack of resolve, that
the news media distorted events or couldn't understand them, that
the antiwar movement meant well but was wrong…Splendid tales of
combat. Flanagan, a U.S. Air Force pilot in the Vietnam War,
describes his experiences as a forward air controller (FAC) working
with our allies and with U.S. Army DELTA teams. (A forward air
controller flies in a small prop plane and acts as a link between
ground troops and larger attack aircraft by providing navigational
aid and marking targets.) Flanagan's introduction, describing his
deep psychological need to share his war experiences, leads the
reader to expect a harrowing study of what war does to people (in
the vein of James C. Donahue's No Greater Love: A Day with the
Mobile Guerrilla Forces in Vietnam, Daring Bks., 1988; or Matthew
Brennan's Brennan's War, Pocket Bks., 1989). Instead, one finds the
same set-piece descriptions of ground combat that are standard in
Vietnam War books. The author's large ego might make readers think
Ehat Flanagan was the best FAC ever to serve in the war. Little
depth here, just the diary of a pilot on an unglamorous but
important mission. Recommended only for libraries with large
Vietnam War collections.
*Library Journal*
John Flanagan is a skilled narrator. Throughout the book, the
reader feels a sense of place, of being there. Vivid descriptions
of people, places and situations abound. The author's idea of the
warrior spirit, the meaning and futility of war is presented from
his unique perspective. I purely enjoyed reading this book. Its
insights into the times and personal side of war are valuable and
thought provoking. The mission narratives are riveting. I found his
discussion of the impact of his Air Force Academy education to be
very illuminating and perhaps fresh ground. As Flanagan points out,
It had produced its first echelon of combat veterans. This vivid
story is testimony to that.
*ASSEMBLY Military Review*
If you served in Vietnam, you'll recognize that John is giving it
to you straight. If you didn't serve there, but are looking to
learn more about why we lost the war, Vietnam Above the Treetops is
full of stories about what worked and what didn't.
*Checkpoints*
The author of this outstanding military memoir describes his
experiences in Vietnam as a forward air-controller in 1966,
piloting slow-moving, low-flying spotter planes, orchestrating
spectacular air strikes (saturation ordinance) and shepherding the
long-range reconnaissance teams of Project Delta, an autonomous
Special Forces outfit staffed by Americans and Vietnamese. A strong
writer with an eye for telling detail, Flanagan vividly conveys
what it was like flying hazardous missions in monsoon weather,
bending rules and regulations for the sake of the task at hand,
enjoying the camaraderie of fellow warriors and waging war despite
critical shortages and malfunctions…The most dramatic section of
the book tells a two-part story of the loss of a Project Delta team
in an ambush and the night 16 years later when a voice on the phone
said My name is Eleanor Bott Gregory. Do you know what happened to
my brother?
*Publishers Weekly*
Something made Flanagan mad in Vietnam, and it just won't go away.
What got to him was an enemy--not the Viet Cong of North Vietnamese
Army but an immorality, an institutional rot that every American
serviceman and woman had to deal with.
*Air & Space/Smithsonian*
Adds much to one's understanding of the air war in Vietnam, but it
also describes the close working relationship between members of
separate services when the job called for them to work together in
spite of interservice rivalry. This is a book that belongs on the
bookshelf of anyone with an interest in Vietnam.
*Vietnam*
Readers should persevere, and those who do will be rewarded. They
will find a well told story which ably conveys precisely what the
complex, difficult, important, and dangerous job of the forward air
controller was during the Vietnam War.
*Air Power History*
A thoughtful even intellectual account about FAC flying above the
tree tops (at tree top level often).
*Indochina Chronology*
Flanagan recounts his time in the US Air Force flying single-engine
spotter planes linking fighter-bomber pilots and ground combat
forces during the Vietnam War in 1966. He draws on letters, maps,
pocket diaries, interviews with comrades, and of course his own
memory to describe how junior officers and non-commissioned
officers, like him, carried the brunt of war trapped between the
bravery of the warriors beneath them and the convoluted
politico-military command structure above them.
*Reference & Research Book News*
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