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by Christopher Robbins

ISBN: 096463600X
Author: Christopher Robbins
Language: English
Publisher: Edgar Allen Poe Literary Society; 2 edition (January 1995)
Pages: 420
Category: Asia
Subcategory: History
Rating: 4.9
Votes: 176
Size Fb2: 1650 kb
Size ePub: 1527 kb
Size Djvu: 1686 kb
Other formats: txt rtf mbr azw

Christopher Robbins Asia English

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FREE shipping on qualifying offers. This book has been around a while but still reads as if it were written today

FREE shipping on qualifying offers. This book has been around a while but still reads as if it were written today. A mentor of mine when I was in the US Air Force was a Raven and everything this book says about the Ravens in terms of their flying skill, courage, outlook on the war, relationship with indigenous peoples, dislike of the "system," et. all rings true. When one thinks of brave aviators, one thinks of the iconic fighter pilots.

Christopher Robbins tells this story in exquisite detail and with heart pounding drama. The Ravens were FACS (Forward Air Controllers) who flew slow, unarmed prop-driven spotter planes over enemy positions to discover and direct fighter-bombers onto North Vietnamese supply convoys heading south. Like any "black ops" secret operation, the Ravens attracted a variety of adventure-seeking young warriors.

Christopher Robbins (19 November 1946 – 24 December 2012) was a British writer and journalist. He is best known for his 1978 bestseller Air America, a non-fiction book which was made into a film in 1990. It is about the secret airline run by the CIA for covert operations during the Vietnam War. Christopher Robbins was born on 19 November 1946, in Bristol, where he grew up and attended Taunton School. A gifted schoolboy, he started working for free on the Evening World and then the Evening Post

The book is about the Ravens who were FACs in Laos, but the book also provided background to the lead up. .Christopher Robbins began his career in journalism at the age of sixteen when he started writing jazz criticism for the Daily Telegraph.

The book is about the Ravens who were FACs in Laos, but the book also provided background to the lead up of the American involvement in Loas. The book also covers the discrimination against the Hmong people, and how they are still in refuge. Since then he has written for numerous newspapers and magazines in Britain, Europe and the USA. The Empress of Ireland won the Saga Award for wit, along with exceptional critical acclaim.

Author Christopher Robbins.

2 5 Author: Christopher Robbins. These are the heroes no one told you about" - Tom Clancy. Officially the war in Laos did not exist - both North Vietnam and the USA denied they had troops there. Devoted to the hill tribesmen they fought alongside, the Ravens did their job with extraordinary skill and crazy courage and with a humour that was all of its own. This is the story, brilliantly told for the first time, of these extraordinary men. Based on extensive interviews with the survivors, it is a tale of undeniable heroism, blending real-life romance, adventure and tragedy.

The Ravens were the pilots, all volunteers, who flew through heavy groundfire to identify targets and call in air-strikes. The Ravens - Christopher Robbins. They wore no uniform and carried no identification. Refugees from the bureaucracy of the war in Vietnam, they accepted the murderous casualty rates of what was known as the Steve Canyon Program in return for a life of unrestricted flying and fighting. For the Ravens who never flew home, and the Hmong who can never return.

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How much we,the public,did know or where not told about the War in Vietnam and surrounding countries. by Roger on December 19, 2017. The Ravens: The True Story Of A Secret War In Laos, Vietnam. by Christopher Robbins. Include any personal information. 0) 50 characters minimum. Title . The title should be at least 4 characters long.

Drawing on materials that were, until recently, classified, this account depicts the intense air war fought over Laos and profiles the "Ravens," the pilots who risked their lives in this little-known field of war.

Comments:

Yanki

As the author of Hamfist Over The Trail: The Air Combat Adventures of Hamilton "Hamfist" Hancock (The Adventures of Hamilton "Hamfist" Hancock), I really appreciate reading a great book about FACs and the air war in Laos. This book is extensively researched, and tells the real story, in great detail, of the Ravens. When I was a FAC I used to hear almost-mythical stories of the Ravens, and when I flew F-4s I had a few Raven-controlled airstrikes, and discovered that all the stories were true!
A really well-written account.

Bedy

This is one of those books that I want to thank the author for writing. My men friends served in Vietnam & this book filled in a lot of the blanks. It was a long read but the knowledge I got was worth it. I was NEVER bored & just the 'fact' as the author put it that there were something like 5 'bureaucrats' for every fighting soldier in the field made me furious & I thought, damn, even back then! I came away understanding why we loose our wars. When the enemy has NO 'Rules of Engagement' and 'our side does, you simply can't win. WHY CAN'T WE LEARN?? Funny to read over and over the assessment way back then that you can NOT just bomb the enemy & win. You must have troops on the ground. Apparently NO one in our military or Government, including Obama has read much or understands this. I came away after reading this book with a much deeper understanding of our failures today & a deep deep respect for those who tried so hard in the past, only to be told to go home, it's over because we gave up. Very very sad. Bless the men who tired.

Modigas

This book has been around a while but still reads as if it were written today. A mentor of mine when I was in the US Air Force was a Raven and everything this book says about the Ravens in terms of their flying skill, courage, outlook on the war, relationship with indigenous peoples, dislike of the "system," etc., all rings true. When one thinks of brave aviators, one thinks of the iconic fighter pilots. But even the fighter pilots flying over Viet-Nam, Laos, etc., knew that the really extraordinary pilots were the Ravens, especially the ones flying in northern Laos. Today's Air Force special operators should know about Project 404 and "Waterpump," etc., but, as a retired special operations Airman myself, I can tell you that most of today's AFSOF personnel have never heard of the Ravens.There are other books on the Ravens available, but this one remains the best all-around and the best place to start to learn about these amazing Americans.

I ℓ٥ﻻ ﻉ√٥υ

I am a vet of WW2, and have read consistently. My primary care physican, after I had given him a copy of my memoirs, mentioned he was a Raven, and gave me the name and author of the book. He ws a flight surgeon. I had never heard of the group. Found we had several other groups in Laos. The flight surgeon was my student in 1955.

Purestone

I first learned about the Ravens in 1969 while I was a civilian flight instructor training U.S. Army helicopter pilots to transition into fixed wing certification. I was very interested in Air America and similar flying opportunities in South East Asia, but was never able to get enough real information to pursue the idea. Everyone I knew with DIA connections said it was not a place for a married man with two small children and mentioned attrition rates of 50%. Chris Robbins' book details the constant danger faced in daily lives of the Ravens during the secret war in Laos with many interesting personal stories. He describes heroic actions by American and Laotian pilots flying WWII vintage aircraft in support of badly outnumbered Laotian ground troops in their fight against massive, better equipped and trained, North Vietnam Army invaders seeking to control their country. Robbins goes into great detail about the deceptions practiced by The U.S. to work around the constraints of the 1962 Treaty that was supposed to guarantee the neutrality of Laos. He points out that while the U.S. pulled all of its uniformed military assistance forces out of Laos leaving only a few hundred CIA support personnel, the North Vietnamese Army maintained troop numbers between 26,000-100,000 while denying having any in Laos. In 1970, when U.S. involvement in support of Laos became known to the U.S. mainstream media, anti-war politicians such as Senators Fulbright and Symington expressed outrage although they had been continuously briefed for a decade. Such is the hypocrisy of so many of our elected representatives ---too bad they don't have the guts of our fighting men.

catterpillar

I read the hardcover book some years ago..perhaps back in the 1980's. I happened to look it up on Amazon and noticed the Kindle Edition.

Chris Robbins details the absolutely heroic acts of (former) US Air Force pilots transferred into the black operations supporting the other war in Laos. Flying normally along or with a local...these guys risked their lives each and every day to support all operations, both US and local Meo tribes fighting the NVA and their supporters.

The Vietnam War was much more than most realize..the sacrifices of so many from the Plain of Jars/Laos to the unforgiving terrain of Indochina. Many never returned....most were never found...and remain missing in action..lost to the history of what was the longest war in US history (now bypassed by Afghanistan).

An epic story that few know about..perhaps..still the US does not wish to relive the issues confronting our efforts in Vietnam to bring sustained peace there...(does this sound familiar?)

An excellent book..well written with in depth information reference to political, logistics and military effort in Laos and Vietnam.

In short..."brave men do.." If you like true historical accounts of men doing dangerous mission in war....then this book/or Kindle is a must read.

Rh/ Haiti/95;Bosnia/96-97;Croatia/97-98;Sudan/2002;Afghanistan/2003;Iraq/2005;Sudan/2008;Uganda/2010