Stephen Coonts' "Flight of the Intruder": Summary This week I read Flight of the Intruder by Stephen Coonts. I read from page 1 to page 437 for a total of 437 pages. The book is about an A-6A Intruder (a naval bomber) pilot named Jake Grafton. In the first few pages Jake's best friend and B/N (Bombardier/Navigator) is killed by a Vietnamese soldier's rifle. In this mission their target was a "suspected truck park." Jake goes into despondency (depression, despair) for a days and tries to convince
One of the two Americans in that platoon were dead. They had to call Air support to keep the enemy back, when they call the planes for support, the Air Force had made some changes again to the mission plans without informing anyone. Instead of A-1 Skyraiders a propeller prop plane the Air Force sent F-100s Super Sabers, a Supersonic fighter that had been pressed into the attack role which it had not been designed for. A bad combination for a
destination faster than having to hike there. This jet was also capable of carrying rockets and machine guns. Another helicopter that was used was the Bell AH-IG Huey Cobra. This helicopter was used for tactical assaults. The Vietnamese also had a skyraider that was virtually identical to the one the Americans had. They also had the Dragonfly A-37, which was another bomber used by the Vietnamese. The airships weren’t just used for attacking the enemy, but also used for the transportation of personnel
John Sydney McCain III was born August 29, 1936 in a military hospital at Coco Solo NAS in the Panama Canal Zone, Panama. His father, John McCain, Jr. was a naval officer stationed at the Canal, doing duties at a small submarine facility. At the same base and time, his grandfather was the base commander. "Jack McCain was transferred to New London a few months later, but for that brief period Panama became the epicenter of three generations of a family whose distinguished naval service would eventually
starved and confined in solitary confinement causing severe mental issues in prisons in North Vietnam. Many of the American Prisoners were pilots for the Army and Air Force shot down during the heavy bombing raids ordered by President Johnson in 1964. 1 For nearly 2,000 days, or six plus years many of these Americans imprisoned in Son Tay about 23 miles west of Hanoi in North Vietnam. After several reports to the Pentagon from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)