fourfax

Robin Olds

I received this email from Monica at St. Martin’s Press:

Wanted to make you aware about this book we recently published. The long-anticipated memoirs of the greatest fighter pilot in American military history, Robin Olds.

By Robin Olds with Christina Olds and Ed Rasimus

Visit the link below for reviews, excerpt, Q&A and photos of the book.

Enjoy!

Monica,
St. Martin’s Press
http://us.macmillan.com/fighterpilot

From the blurb:

The widely anticipated memoir of legendary ace American fighter pilot, Robin Olds.

Robin Olds was a larger-than-life hero with a towering personality. A graduate of West Point and an inductee in the National College Football Hall of Fame for his All-American performance for Army, Olds was one of the toughest college football players at the time. In WWII, Olds quickly became a top fighter pilot and squadron commander by the age of 22—and an ace with 12 aerial victories.

But it was in Vietnam where the man became a legend. He arrived in 1966 to find a dejected group of pilots and motivated them by placing himself on the flight schedule under officers junior to himself, then challenging them to train him properly because he would soon be leading them. Proving he wasn’t a WWII retread, he led the wing with aggressiveness, scoring another four confirmed kills, becoming a rare triple ace.

Olds (who retired a brigadier general and died in 2007) was a unique individual whose personal story is one of the most eagerly anticipated military books of the year.

The book has been co-authored by Ed Rasimus who flew the F-105 Thunderchief and the F-4 Phantom on active duty in Vietnam. I’ve read both his books – When Thunder Rolled and Palace Cobra – and they’re both excellent. I’ll be buying Fighter Pilot.

I’ve added a new page – Sqn Commanding Officers – from the official History of IV(AC) Squadron.

I’ve found an official – i.e. the RAF’s – version of the history of the Squadron, as a downloadable pdf on the RAF website. It’s now on the fourfax server. To download the file (6.3mb), click here to get it from fourfax or click here to get it from the RAF.

To read a pdf file you will need a copy of Adobe Reader (or Preview, preinstalled on a Mac).

1987 Sqn Photo

A late-80s Squadron Photo, I’m guessing 1987, Boss: Wg Cdr Pete Harris. Other faces I recognise: Des Dezonie, Mike Jenkins, Roger Robertshaw, Mark Taberham, Ashley Stevenson, Neil Ross, Tim Ellison, Simon Turner, Lance Brook, Steve Hicks, Tony Norris, Glen Edge, Clive Loader, Harry Karl, Pete Cockman. Who have I missed?

Thanks to Roger O’Loughlin for the photo.

With thanks to Leslie de Garis (1947-1950), a short ode to Armament Practice Camp at Sylt:

There came one fine morning a Squadron to Sylt,
Equipped with Mosquitoes, of wood they were built,
With cannon and bomb they determined to score
Every point that they could and the Squadron was Four.

The drogue had a rough time and that goes for List,
Though half of the time they were thoroughly pissed
All credit to ground crews, they worked at full bore
But then that’s what you expect, ‘cos the Squadron was Four.

There came the day they were on air-to-ground
And four virgin targets were there to be found,
Those four virgin targets were rogered and sore,
But then that’s what you expect, ‘cos the Squadron was Four.

Time will pass by, and other Squadrons will come
They’ll look at our records and feel very glum,
For there are Squadrons and Squadrons and Squadrons galore,
But there is only one real one and that one is Four.

(Added to the History Pages)