| Midair: An Epic Tale of Survival and a Mission That Might Have Ended the Vietnam War Contributor(s): Collins, Craig K. (Author), Kamps, Charles T. (Foreword by) |
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ISBN: 1493048740 ISBN-13: 9781493048748 Publisher: Lyons Press OUR PRICE: $17.96 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: February 2020 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Military - Aviation - History | Military - Vietnam War - History | Military - United States |
| Dewey: 959.704 |
| Physical Information: 0.7" H x 5.6" W x 8.7" (0.70 lbs) 248 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Southeast Asian - Chronological Period - 1960's |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Midair is a true account of one of the most remarkable tales of survival in the history of aviation - a midair collision at 30,000 feet by two bomb-laden B-52s over a category 5 super typhoon above the South China Sea during the outset of the Vietnam War. Authored by Craig K. Collins, the nephew of B-52 pilot Maj. Don Harten, Midair is an historically important work that is about more than survival. Interwoven through Harten's dramatic story of his million-to-one struggle against near-certain death is a previously unexamined look at how America had developed an aerial battle plan that would likely have ended the Vietnam conflict in under a month during the late winter of 1965. Instead, the country's war planners and politicians veered off course and into a bloody eight-year quagmire. Harten was on the February 1965 top-secret mission - a massive B-52 bombing raid of railways, supply depots, and airfields in and around Hanoi - that was called off in mid-flight. That mission and battle plan was mothballed until Dec. 18, 1972, when it was dusted off and dubbed Linebacker II, effectively ending the war within a week. Over 120 B-52s bombed Hanoi-area military installations for eight consecutive days. As a result of the heavy bombing, the North Vietnamese declared a truce, attended peace talks in Paris in early January and signed the Paris Peace Accords, ending hostilities in Vietnam on Jan. 27, 1973. It is the gripping tale of a young Air Force officer's first combat mission that instantly pulls the reader in and never lets up. |