Scrappy: Memoir of a U.S. Fighter Pilot in Korea and Vietnam

by Howard C. "Scrappy" Johnson, Ian A. O'Connor, Ian A. O’Connor

From World War II to high above the Earth to Vietnam, this memoir tells the story of fighter pilot Howard C. Scrappy Johnson. Beginning with his early years in Knoxville, Tennessee, the book follows Johnson through his career at the University of Louisville and his enlistment as an Air Force cadet at the onset of World War II. After World War II, Johnson served a tour of duty in the skies over Korea and in 1958 broke the world's altitude record by over 14,000 feet, soaring at 91,249 feet in his F-104A Starfighter. For this remarkable feat he was awarded the Collier Trophy, aviation's highest honor. In Vietnam, he was director of operations for the 388th Tactical Fighter Wing and was instrumental in founding the Red River Valley Fighter Pilots, a group dedicated to the remembrance of fallen and captured airmen. Written with panache, this work records the bigger-than-life adventures of one of America's finest.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786432047
• ISBN13: 9780786432042
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: McFarland & Company
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.5" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A True Look Into The Fighter Pilot World

Scrappy and my dad, Brig. Gen. Robin Olds, were cohorts and compadres in a world that only fighter pilots can understand. I read this book with great enjoyment, appreciation, laughter and admiration. Through no end of great tales, self-deprecating honesty and acute analysis of the political bureaucracy in play during the Vietnam war, I learned far more about fighter pilots than I already knew I didn't know! "Scrappy" is a great read and should be on everyone's list - not only for Air force veterans but for active duty pilots of today.

A Real Page Turner

I had the honor of reading Scrappy over the past three days while traveling by air on a business trip. I found his book difficult to put down. The book just keeps moving without ever getting bogged down. Every time I turned the page I found something new and refreshing. I feel like I have known Scrappy my whole life now after reading his story. In fact when I got home last night I kept telling my wife Scrappy this and Scrappy that. The story is at times very touching. I felt like Scrappy was able to take words from my soul and put them on paper. He showed me insight to my own experiences as a son, or a father, or a husband. On the other hand it was full of action and excitement too. Scrappy is filled with his professional and private ups and downs. And most of all it was filled with stories about flying. All in all this is a great book. I found it refreshing and easy to read. This was no school book that I had to pull myself through. No, Scrappy pulled me through. Page after page he carried my attention to the end. This was a real page turner of a story. This is Scrappy.

Great book from a great man!

I had the pleasure of meeting Scrappy a couple of years ago at an astronaut and aviator autograph show in Florida. He was more interesting and likeable than the more famous spacemen sitting around him. His new autobiography is excellent. I couldn't put the book down until I had finished reading it...in one sitting. I enjoyed it so much I purchased another copy as a gift!

Fighter Pilot Extraordinaire

I knew Scrappy in the Air Force and he was a "Fighter Pilot's Fighter Pilot". The book is excellent, couldn't put it down. All you fighter pilot wannabees can live the dream, or at least dream on with Scrappy. Let me tell you that Scrappy is a bonafide "character" remembered vividly by everybody who ever met him. He is a legend in the fighter world. I am so glad he wrote this book. I enjoyed every word.

Scrappy

Pick up your Funk & Wagnall, flip open to the word "hero". It is there you will see "Scrappy's" photo right next to the likes of Robin Olds, whom Scrappy was well acquainted with. I read this book cover to cover in one night. It is a rollicking account of a fighter pilot who lives up to his name of "Scrappy" (or as his friends know him - "Sir"), both in combat and doing the unthinkable in 1958: flying a stock F-104 to an altitude record of over 91,000 feet. In 1958! His stories of combat in Korea, keeping the Russians at bay during the Cold War and, where he really proved his mettle in Viet Nam,will keep you riveted to your chair, and at times, reaching for your ejection handles! The first President of the Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Association, he knows whereof he speaks, and Mr. O'Connor knows how to write about it. Order this book NOW, or Sir himself will be knocking at your door wanting to know why! And I'll be there with him! Editorial reviews by Bob Gilliland, Ron Fogelman and Ross Perot have to mean something.