Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds

by Robin Olds, Christina Olds (With), Ed Rasimus (With)

Overview

Fighter Pilot is the memoir of legendary ace American fighter pilot and general officer in the U.S. Air Force, 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 presents one of the most eagerly anticipated military books in recent memory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312569518
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/10/2011
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	94,501
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Robin Olds (1922-2007) was a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot. A triple ace, he achieved a combined total of 16 victories in the Second World War and the Vietnam War. Born into an army family in Honolulu and raised in Virginia, he was educated at West Point, where he was an All American football player. He fought in Europe during World War II, and was regarded as the best wing commander in the Vietnam War. He was promoted to brigadier general after Vietnam, and also served as Commandant of Cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Christina Olds is the daughter of Robin Olds. She holds a B.A. in English and creative writing from Vassar.

Ed Rasimus is a retired USAF fighter pilot whose books on the Vietnam air war include When Thunder Rolled and Palace Cobra.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Preface xiii

1 Battle 1

2 My Early Years 5

3 Pilot Training 18

4 Off to War 29

5 A Small Event Called D-day 41

6 The Heat of Many Battles 56

7 Victories-at Last! 76

8 Mustangs and Mayhem 94

9 R&R, Second Tour, and Home 116

10 Going Home 132

11 Life in the Fast Lane 153

12 Exchange with the RAF 1948 180

13 F-86s at March Field, the Pitts, and Stewart 198

14 Landstuhl to Libya 210

15 Pentagon to Shaw 227

16 The Phantom and the War 247

17 Bolo 271

18 Rolling Thunder 283

19 The Ending Battle 313

20 The Painful Way Home 341

21 The Academy 353

22 IG and Out 371

23 Final Landing 382

Index 387

Editorial Reviews

A gripping narrative...Compelling reading, likely to become a classic.” —Booklist

“Robin Olds is probably the greatest aerial warrior America ever produced. His autobiography tells it like it was...and provides written proof why the people who served with him made him a legend. This book will be an instant classic.” —Stephen Coonts, New York Times bestselling author of The Assassin

“One man's account of war and, in its way, a tribute to a vanished breed of men.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Excellent...at times, his poetic descriptions reveal a humanity rarely exhibited in public by this swashbuckling, handlebar-mustachioed giant of air power.” —Aviation Weekly

From the Publisher