- Mass Market Paperback: 468 pages
- Publisher: St. Martin's Press; Reprint edition (2 April 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312942036
- ISBN-13: 978-0312942038
- Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 10.4 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
125,644 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3 in Books > History > Countries & Regions > Asia > South East Asia > Laos
- #41 in Books > Biography > Historical > United States > Vietnam War
- #54 in Books > Biography > War & Espionage > Vietnam War
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
""Flying Through Midnight" is a no-holds-barred account of the secret air war over Laos. John Halliday paints a compelling cockpit view of the action, but he also immerses his readers in layer upon layer of sensations and emotions associated with those dangerous nighttime missions. He takes us on a hell of a ride!"
-- Col. Tom Yarborough, author of "Da Nang Diary: A Forward Air Controller's Gunsight View of Combat in Vietnam"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Riveting, novelistic, and startlingly candid, John T. Halliday's combat memoir begins in 1970, when Halliday has just landed in the middle of the Vietnam War, primed to begin his assignment with the 606th Special Operations Squadron. But there's a catch: He's stationed in a kind of no-man's-land. No one on his base flies with ID, patches, or rank. Even as Richard Nixon firmly denies reporters' charges that the United States has forces in Laos, Halliday realizes that from his base in Thailand, he will be flying top-secret, black-ops night missions over the Laotian Ho Chi Minh Trail.
A naive yet thoughtful twenty-four-year-old, Halliday was utterly unprepared for the horrors of war. On his first mission, Halliday's C-123 aircraft dodges more than a thousand antiaircraft shells, and that is just the beginning. Nothing is as he expected -- not the operations, not the way his shell-shocked fellow pilots look and act, and certainly not the squadron's daredevil, seat-of-one's-pants approach to piloting. But before long, Halliday has become one of those seasoned and shell-shocked pilots, and finds himself in a desperate search for a way to elude certain death.
Using frank, true-to-life dialogue, potent imagery, and classic 1970s song lyrics, Halliday deftly describes the fraught Laotian skies and re-creates his struggle to navigate the frustrating Air Force bureaucracy, the deprivations of a remote base far from home and his young wife, and his fight to preserve his sanity. The resulting nonfiction narrative vividly captures not only the intricate, distorted culture of war but also the essence of the Vietnam veteran's experience of this troubled era.
A powerhouse fusion of pathos and humor, brutal realism and intimate reflection, "Flying Through Midnight" is a landmark contribution to war literature, revealing previously top-secret intelligence on the 606th's night missions. Fast-paced, thrilling, and bitingly intelligent, Halliday illuminates it all: the heart-pounding air battles, the close friendships, the crippling fear, and the astonishing final escape that made the telling of it possible. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
John Halliday has written a sensitive and thoughtful account of his time flying clandestine missions over Laos during the Vietnam War. The book is unusual in that it succeeds in delivering a mix of factual first person account from the pilot's perspective with a narrative with the reader of how the system in place in Vietnam undermined the morale of the guys in the squadron and the effect it had on him over time. In some strange way, it reminded me of Ernest Gann's classic "Fate is the hunter" because of the writing style perhaps.
This is my first Amazon review, although I'm a voracious reader of aviation literature, and I think the reason why I'm writing this review is because I think you could overlook this book for other more well known titles. But don't, because if you are a pilot, or fan of military memoirs, this book is worthy of a place on your bookshelf.
postscript - Having gone over to the Amazon.com site to read reviews from the U.S., it appears that several people who served in that area around the same time as the author pour considerable scorn on the accuracy of his account. However, I'll keep my review as is and trust the author has had the integrity to tell the truth. I just wanted to add a little balance to my review.
This is my first Amazon review, although I'm a voracious reader of aviation literature, and I think the reason why I'm writing this review is because I think you could overlook this book for other more well known titles. But don't, because if you are a pilot, or fan of military memoirs, this book is worthy of a place on your bookshelf.
postscript - Having gone over to the Amazon.com site to read reviews from the U.S., it appears that several people who served in that area around the same time as the author pour considerable scorn on the accuracy of his account. However, I'll keep my review as is and trust the author has had the integrity to tell the truth. I just wanted to add a little balance to my review.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
First of all I should start by saying that when this book gets going, (which doesn't take long)it is an absolutely rip-roaring, continual page-turning, nail-biting, midnight-hour passing.....masterpiece !
The author is an unsuspecting transport pilot who is posted out to Thailand, assuming he'll be flying safe 'airline' style missions inside Thailand rather than Vietnam. When he gets to his new assignment, he finds out to his surprise that he will actually be flying combat missions as a Forward Air Controller in the secret war inside Laos. Flying an outdated transport aircraft he is quickly given command as he is given unofficial (and highly illegal) training on how to survive, rather than fly to the rulebook.
The book covers many of his incidents but a large portion of it focusses on one particular event in incredible detail, which I found impossible to stop reading. I still find it incredible that he survived with his crew and there are a few interviews scattered around the internet with the author backing up what happened.
The only downside I found with my paperback was a total lack of photos or illustrations and particularly given the complex nature of what happened to him, a little map or diagram would have helped. As it is though, this doesn't spoil things and a quick google of the location brought up some good photos etc.
If you have any interest in aviation, Vietnam or just want a rip-roaring read, buy this...but Caveat Emptor....you won't put it down till you finish !
The author is an unsuspecting transport pilot who is posted out to Thailand, assuming he'll be flying safe 'airline' style missions inside Thailand rather than Vietnam. When he gets to his new assignment, he finds out to his surprise that he will actually be flying combat missions as a Forward Air Controller in the secret war inside Laos. Flying an outdated transport aircraft he is quickly given command as he is given unofficial (and highly illegal) training on how to survive, rather than fly to the rulebook.
The book covers many of his incidents but a large portion of it focusses on one particular event in incredible detail, which I found impossible to stop reading. I still find it incredible that he survived with his crew and there are a few interviews scattered around the internet with the author backing up what happened.
The only downside I found with my paperback was a total lack of photos or illustrations and particularly given the complex nature of what happened to him, a little map or diagram would have helped. As it is though, this doesn't spoil things and a quick google of the location brought up some good photos etc.
If you have any interest in aviation, Vietnam or just want a rip-roaring read, buy this...but Caveat Emptor....you won't put it down till you finish !
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great book
Very good book. So pleased the author managed to get the book published. A credit to the author and all those involved.
Published 8 months ago by andyindeuk
Good read, but how much is true?
The first two thirds of this book were a very good read; however, towards the end it became increasingly difficult to believe, and one of the first things I did after finishing the... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Mark Grant
A stonking good read
A good read showing the clandestine side of activities in Vietnam.
Enjoyed every page of this book
Enjoyed every page of this book
Published 18 months ago by K. Mclean
Surprising...
This book has been a surprise even after reading the other reviews. This book has been a very good susprise! Read more
Published 18 months ago by Aldonio Silva
10 OUT OF 10.
This is the best book i have read so far, I could not put it down...
Published 22 months ago by Tony Baker
YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK. IT WILL WAKE YOU UP.
Yes, this book is an absolute page-turner, yes it will keep you awake at night reading just one more page. But it is much more than that. Read more
Published on 6 April 2010 by NoFiction Buff
Feels like you are really there
I picked up this book with a degree of trepidation as I expected the usual Gung Ho clap trap sometimes associated with ex-military "authors". Read more
Published on 20 Oct 2009 by phantomfan
Excellent piece of writing. A brilliant book.
Every so often a book comes along that you really just can not put down; FTM is one of those books. This book is up there with the very best memoirs that I have ever read, in fact... Read more
Published on 21 Sep 2009 by D. Halsey
This book opens Pandora's box and rights many wrongdoings.
I thought I had read all there was to read on the Vietnam war and then this book came into my life. Straight into my top ten on par with Ripcord, Low level hell and Chickenhawk. Read more
Published on 18 Dec 2008 by Pedros
Superb - absolutly superb
If you are looking for an absolute page turner that will make to laugh and cry then this is for you. Read more
Published on 11 Nov 2008 by El Supremo
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