The Air Force Historical Foundation is proud to offer a collection of Foundation books for gift-giving or to add to your personal history collection.
This volume is the first printed edition of the new Journal of the Air Force Historical Foundation. This “Summer Special Edition” establishes the model for the Foundation’s journal cycle from here on out. Each year, only the Summer Edition will be printed. It will be an expanded edition and will focus on the Foundation’s theme for the year. The printed journal is included in a full annual AFHF membership. ENJOY the epic publication!
When his electronic warfare plane–call sign Bat 21–was shot down on 2 April 1972, fifty-three-year-old Air Force navigator Iceal “Gene” Hambleton parachuted into the middle of a North Vietnamese invasion force and set off the biggest and most controversial air rescue effort of the Vietnam War. Now, after twenty-five years of official secrecy, the story of that dangerous and costly rescue is revealed for the first time by a decorated Air Force pilot and Vietnam veteran. Involving personnel from all services, including the Coast Guard, the unorthodox rescue operation claimed the lives of eleven soldiers and airmen, destroyed or damaged several aircraft, and put hundreds of airmen, a secret commando unit, and a South Vietnamese infantry division at risk. The book also examines the thorny debates arising from an operation that balanced one man’s life against mounting U.S. and South Vietnamese casualties and material losses, the operation’s impact on one of the most critical battles of the war, and the role played by search and rescue as America disengaged from that war.
(Autographed copy)
In 1962, an Air Liaison Officer began supporting the Vietnamese Airborne Brigade (known as the Red Berets) and its embedded American advisors in MACV Team 162 (the Red Hats). The liaison officer took the call sign Red Marker. Over the years, the unit grew to a peak of 36 personnel with a dozen aircraft and six radio jeeps devoted to directing close air support for the Red Berets.
This book tells the history of these forward air controllers and the elite Vietnamese and American warriors on the ground. It is based on first-hand accounts of more than 100 men who were there. The stories include detailed descriptions of air missions, heroic Medevac rescues, the Medal of Honor actions of two Red Hats, and the shipboard escape of hundreds from Vietnam led by a Catholic seminary student.
This is a sequel to the first history of the Red Markers published in 2012. The Rest of the Story goes well beyond that earlier work.
(Autographed copy)
(Autographed Copy)
