One Day in a Long War

by Jeffrey L. Ethell

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394576225
• ISBN13: 9780394576220
• Release Date: August 1989
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 217 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.

Customer Reviews

In the sky over North Vietnam: A 360-degree account of one day's air battles

In this highly readable book, Jeffrey Ethell and Alfred Price told the story of the air war over North Vietnam from a fresh and comprehensive perspective. The air war can be looked at through different lenses. One focus is aircraft (Phantom II, say, or Thud, Corsair, Crusader, or Vigilante). There are the lenses of leadership (Momyer, Black Man and Robin, Manor, Vogt, and Brougham are examples) and heroism (Ritchie, Stockdale, Day, McCain). A third approach is via units (Wolf Pack, Triple Nickel, Misty, Jolly Greens). Tactics is yet one more lens to look at the war (bombing, air-to-air combat, defense suppression, SAM evasion, air control, reconaissance, rescue). There are many books, articles, and web pages that well describe these "parts" of the air war. What makes "One Day in a Long War" a much different and much better book is that Ethell and Price looked at the air operations over Vietnam on one day -- May 10, 1972 -- and portrayed the "the whole" fast-moving picture. The main action was the first Operation Linebacker, attacks by the Air Force on targets in the Hanoi area, the Paul Doumer Bridge and the Yen Vien Rail Yard. Navy and Marine aircraft from carriers in the South China Sea attacked Haiphong. There were dozens of aircraft (Air Force F-4s, Navy and Marine F-4s, A-6s, and A-7s) that penetrated the defenses and delivered bombs to the targets. They were, however, outnumbered by aircraft that cleared their way. Signals information on the enemy was provided by an RC-135. A U-2 relayed data. An EC-121D "Super Connie" from the College Eye Task Force controlled airspace and directed air intercepts. Preceding the bombers to the target were F-4s that created a corridor of chaff to confuse the North Vietnamese radars. EB-66's blasted the ether with electronic countermeasures. Air Force RF-4s and Navy RF-5s and RF-8s flew reconaissance missions before and after the attacks. The bombers flying to the target were refueled by KC-135s. Other F-4s flew "MIG Cap" missions, tangling with North Vietnamese fighters in air-to-air combat. "Wild Weasel" F-105Gs from Thailand battled the North Vietnamese antiaircraft guns and surface-to-air missiles with their own radar-homing missiles. Finally, Air Force HH-53D and Navy HH-3A helicopters rescued downed American airmen. The authors interviewed American aircrew from all the services, some North Vietnamese participants, British diplomats who were serving in North Vietnam, journalists, and American POWs who were listening to the attacks in their cells. They placed Operation Linebacker in the context of the Vietnam war's history and diplomacy. All in all, they told the "whole story" well, making his book a "must read" in the history of air warfare. -30-

Detailed account of the busiest single day in the air war

This book gives you a very detailed account of May 10, 1972 when the U.S. cranked up the air war machine to send Hanoi a message, that should have been sent many years before. The start of Linebacker I. You will realize the enormous difficulty in mounting raid of this size and the people involved. But there werre no shortages of pilots willing to fly to Hanoi and do what they had wanted to do for years. Gripping detail and human drama.