Fighter Pilot The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds

by Olds, Christina; Rasimus, Ed; Olds, Robin

• ISBN13: 9780312569518
• ISBN10: 0312569513
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-05-10
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Summary

Robin Olds was many things to many people. To his West Point football coach he was an All American destined for the National College Football Hall of Fame. To his P-38 and P-51 wartime squadrons in WWII he was the aggressive fighter pilot who made double ace and became their commander in nine short months. For the pioneers of the jet age, he was the wingman on the first jet demo team, a racer in the Thompson Trophy race, and the only U.S. exchange officer to command an RAF squadron. In the tabloid press he was the dashing flying hero who married the glamorous movie star. For the current crop of fighter pilots he is best known as the leader of the F-4 Wolfpack battling over North Vietnam. For cadets at the Air Force Academy he was a role model and mentor. He was all of those things and more. Here's Robin's story in his own words and gleaned from the family and friends of his lifetime. Here's the talent and learning, the passion and leadership, the love and disappointments of his life. Few men have written on the tablets of aviation history with such a broad and indelible brush. Olds was a classic hero with vices as well as virtues, a life writ large that impacted many.

Author Biography

Christina Olds is the daughter of Robin Olds. She holds a B.A. from Vassar College in English and creative writing and compiled her father's writings to help complete this book with Ed Rasimus, a retired USAF fighter pilot who has written two books on the Vietnam air war, When Thunder Rolled and Palace Cobra.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Preface	p. xiii
Battle	p. 1
My Early Years	p. 5
Pilot Training	p. 18
Off to War	p. 29
A Small Event Called D-day	p. 41
The Heat of Many Battles	p. 56
Victories-at Last!	p. 76
Mustangs and Mayhem	p. 94
R&R, Second Tour, and Home	p. 116
Going Home	p. 132
Life in the Fast Lane	p. 153
Exchange with the RAF 1948	p. 180
F-86s at March Field, the Pitts, and Stewart	p. 198
Landstuhl to Libya	p. 210
Pentagon to Shaw	p. 227
The Phantom and the War	p. 247
Bolo	p. 271
Rolling Thunder	p. 283
The Ending Battle	p. 313
The Painful Way Home	p. 341
The Academy	p. 353
IG and Out	p. 371
Final Landing	p. 382
Index	p. 387
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