Alone, Unarmed and Unafraid

Flying a Phantom RF-4C reconnaissance jet amidst air combat—the remarkable technical details, the mission, the derring-do—and the 19 nonflying hours a day: All this told in a gripping series of vignettes by a former pilot of a U.S. Air Force photo reconnaissance jet stationed at an airbase in Udorn, Thailand, during the Vietnam conflict. Formation flying, night photo missions, confrontations with B-52s, the Officer’s Club and shows at Udorn, AAA fire, SAM missiles, the “Hanoi Hilton,” GIs being killed by their own side—all this and more form a work of literature quite unlike any other emerging from Southeast Asia.