God and Country

Robin Olds
St Martin’s Press, 2010

Robin Olds is a legend in the fighter pilot community, though he may not be recognized outside of it.  Many people may remember, for example, the famous Operation BOLO during Vietnam, which used F-4s to impersonate F-105s and succeeded in destroying a third of the North Vietnamese MiG-21s in a single mission – but few know then-Col Robin Olds was responsible for it.  Fighter Pilot is his story, and it is explicitly delivered as a memoir, rather than an autobiography.  Thus, it is not a detailed birth-to-death retelling of his life, but a first-hand recounting of the things he wishes to convey.  (The book was completed after his 2007 death by his daughter, Christina Olds, and Ed Rasimus, himself a retired fighter pilot.)

The book starts off somewhat slowly, almost as if (despite its status as a “memoir”), Olds (or his co-authors) felt obligated to include some stories from the early parts of his life.  He mentions his early pilot training days and a few significant events briefly, but provides little detail or introspective.  For example, he casually mentions, without further insight, that he attended the Air Corps Tactical School, which would ultimately form the basis for all air doctrine in the Army Air Forces and eventually the independent Air Force.  He also covers his entire training, from his early wartime graduation from West Point through becoming a pilot, in a scant 20 pages.  Some of the lack of detail may be for a very understandable cause: he simply didn’t remember much from those early days.  Another may be more pragmatic: Olds is known for his time in Vietnam, not pilot training.

Unlike some other fighter pilot books, Read more…

Ret. Col. Walker “Bud” “Honest John” Mahurin, credited with 24.25 kills in both WWII theatres and the Korean War, passed away on May 11 at the age of 91.  Besides shooting down aircraft in three theatres, Mahurin had the dubious honor of being shot down in each one.  He escaped France with the aid of the French resistance (as did Chuck Yeager).  Yeager talked his way into continuing to fly in Europe (despite his exposure to the underground); Mahurin went to the Pacific theatre instead.  In the later conflict, Mahurin was a Korean POW for 16 months.

For those who are wondering, “honest John” Read more…

The F-15C Eagle, the US Air Force’s only dedicated air superiority fighter, has just seen its last class of students graduate, at least on the active duty side.  The five-man B-course graduated May 14th.  The Oregon National Guard will continue to train Guard pilots, at least until the Air Force finally retires the Eagle.

Their graduation speaker was retired Brigadier General Steve Ritchie, the only Air Force officer to become an ace in Vietnam.

The Tyndall B-course was also the scene for American Fighter Pilot (reviewed here), a short-lived “reality” series following a trio of students through training.

Lt. Col. Lee A. Archer, one of the original Tuskegee Airman and a fighter pilot, died on Wednesday, 27 January 2010.  The 90 year old was reportedly the “first and only black ace pilot.”  A fellow Tuskegee Airman estimated that 50 to 60 of the nearly 1,000 original pilots remain alive.  (The 332nd Fighter Group, which was composed of the Tuskegee squadrons, was reactivated in 2004 as an Expeditionary Air Wing in Iraq.  The wing held a memorial service in Iraq for LtCol Archer.)

Like the Doolittle Raiders, of whom only 8 survive of the 80 crew members, the original Tuskegee Airmen and their fellow World War Army Air Corps pilots served as inspirations to generations of men and women who would fly and fight for their country.  Though they are increasingly few in number, those who fought to preserve the free world in the early 20th century–many of whom did not return–are an irreplaceable part of the American heritage.  Their legacy, and their legend, should not be forgotten.