Vietnam Above the Treetops: A Forward Air Controller Reports

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It is 1966, the war in Vietnam is escalating, and a young Air Force Academy graduate's assignment is to patrol unfriendly territory with six-man hunter-killer teams. As a Forward Air Controller, flying single engine spotter planes, Flanagan is the link between fighter-bomber pilots and ground forces. This autobiographical account recreates the period when Flanagan, assigned to Project Delta, was plunged into major operations in key combat areas. Spectacular airstrikes, team rescues, lost men, thwarted attempts to save comrades - all are recounted here with honesty. A factual combat history from the perspective of an American airman in Vietnam, this also takes a look at the warrior values of bravery, honesty, and integrity. Flanagan examines the influences that help build these values - educational institutions, the military training system (including the service academies), and religion - and reflects on the high cost of abandoning them.

Reviews

"A riveting personal account of the war in Vietnam from a unique perspective--that of a pilot engaged in all facets of the operations. Highly readable, moving, and gripping. Flanagan brings home forcefully the ethical dimension of war--the difficult choices facing a combat pilot; American policy makers not fully committing to the prosecution of the war; and the failure of the media to accurately portray the American involvement in that conflict."-Dr. Tyrus W. Cobb President Business Executives for National Security
"For 16 years we never knew what really happened to my brother when he disappeared in Laos. John told us the truth in 1982. He tells it here. We are grateful for his efforts. My brother may still be alive."-Eleanor Bott Gregory Sister of Russ Bott, MIA, December 2, 1966
"This book vividly depicts the warrior spirit of the graduates of the (then new) Air Force Academy who served in the Vietnam War."-Charles R. Hamm Lt. Gen. USAF, Retired Former Superintendent, U.S. Air Force Academy
"This is real combat with real people . . . it is also a striking story of conscience and conviction in the face of deadly bureaucratic ineptitude."-Robert H. Baxter Brigadier General, Retired, Top Gun, 2 tours in Vietnam
"Vietnam traumatized the warriors, the families, and the nation. Flanagan lays bare the scars as the healing process continues. Everyone exposed to the Vietnam experience can learn from this book."-Linda Reinberg, Ph.D. Psychologist Specializing in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Author of In the Field: The Language of the Vietnam War
adds much to one's understanding of the air war in Vietnam, but it also describes the close working relationship between members of separate services when the job called for them to work together in spite of interservice rivalry. This is a book that belongs on the bookshelf of anyone with an interest in Vietnam.-Vietnam
A thoughtful even intellectual account about FAC flying above the tree tops (at tree top level often).-Indochina Chronology
An Air Force officer's vigorous account of the Vietnam War...Flanagan's memoir is not like Robert Mason's in Chickenhawk (1983), where the naive young officer is transformed into an embittered veteran questioning all wars. Flanagan became a general. His job in Vietnam was to fly close in with small aircraft, to report and coordinate what he saw; sometimes, too, he had to don infantry gear and head into the jungle. Many of his blow-by-blow accounts of battles are drawn from notes...This is the perspective of a veteran who feels we failed because of a lack of resolve, that the news media distorted events or couldn't understand them, that the antiwar movement meant well but was wrong...Splendid tales of combat. Flanagan, a U.S. Air Force pilot in the Vietnam War, describes his experiences as a forward air controller (FAC) working with our allies and with U.S. Army DELTA teams. (A forward air controller flies in a small prop plane and acts as a link between ground troops and larger attack aircraft by providing navigational aid and marking targets.) Flanagan's introduction, describing his deep psychological need to share his war experiences, leads the reader to expect a harrowing study of what war does to people (in the vein of James C. Donahue's No Greater Love: A Day with the Mobile Guerrilla Forces in Vietnam, Daring Bks., 1988; or Matthew Brennan's Brennan's War, Pocket Bks., 1989). Instead, one finds the same set-piece descriptions of ground combat that are standard in Vietnam War books. The author's large ego might make readers think Ehat Flanagan was the best FAC ever to serve in the war. Little depth here, just the diary of a pilot on an unglamorous but important mission.Recommended only for libraries with large Vietnam War collections.-Library Journal
If you served in Vietnam, you'll recognize that John is giving it to you straight. If you didn't serve there, but are looking to learn more about why we lost the war, Vietnam Above the Treetops is full of stories about what worked and what didn't.-Checkpoints
John Flanagan is a skilled narrator. Throughout the book, the reader feels a sense of place, of being there. Vivid descriptions of people, places and situations abound. The author's idea of the warrior spirit, the meaning and futility of war is presented from his unique perspective. I purely enjoyed reading this book. Its insights into the times and personal side of war are valuable and thought provoking. The mission narratives are riveting. I found his discussion of the impact of his Air Force Academy education to be very illuminating and perhaps fresh ground. As Flanagan points out, "It had produced its first echelon of combat veterans." This vivid story is testimony to that.-ASSEMBLY Military Review
Readers should persevere, and those who do will be rewarded. They will find a well told story which ably conveys precisely what the complex, difficult, important, and dangerous job of the forward air controller was during the Vietnam War.-Air Power History
Something made Flanagan mad in Vietnam, and it just won't go away. What got to him was an enemy--not the Viet Cong of North Vietnamese Army but an immorality, an institutional rot that every American serviceman and woman had to deal with.-Air & Space/Smithsonian
The author of this outstanding military memoir describes his experiences in Vietnam as a forward air-controller in 1966, piloting slow-moving, low-flying spotter planes, orchestrating spectacular air strikes ("saturation ordinance") and shepherding the long-range reconnaissance teams of Project Delta, an autonomous Special Forces outfit staffed by Americans and Vietnamese. A strong writer with an eye for telling detail, Flanagan vividly conveys what it was like flying hazardous missions in monsoon weather, bending rules and regulations for the sake of the task at hand, enjoying the camaraderie of fellow warriors and waging war despite critical shortages and malfunctions...The most dramatic section of the book tells a two-part story of the loss of a Project Delta team in an ambush and the night 16 years later when a voice on the phone said "My name is Eleanor Bott Gregory. Do you know what happened to my brother"-Publishers Weekly
"adds much to one's understanding of the air war in Vietnam, but it also describes the close working relationship between members of separate services when the job called for them to work together in spite of interservice rivalry. This is a book that belongs on the bookshelf of anyone with an interest in Vietnam."-Vietnam
"A thoughtful even intellectual account about FAC flying above the tree tops (at tree top level often)."-Indochina Chronology
"If you served in Vietnam, you'll recognize that John is giving it to you straight. If you didn't serve there, but are looking to learn more about why we lost the war, Vietnam Above the Treetops is full of stories about what worked and what didn't."-Checkpoints
"John Flanagan is a skilled narrator. Throughout the book, the reader feels a sense of place, of being there. Vivid descriptions of people, places and situations abound. The author's idea of the warrior spirit, the meaning and futility of war is presented from his unique perspective. I purely enjoyed reading this book. Its insights into the times and personal side of war are valuable and thought provoking. The mission narratives are riveting. I found his discussion of the impact of his Air Force Academy education to be very illuminating and perhaps fresh ground. As Flanagan points out, "It had produced its first echelon of combat veterans." This vivid story is testimony to that."-ASSEMBLY Military Review
"Readers should persevere, and those who do will be rewarded. They will find a well told story which ably conveys precisely what the complex, difficult, important, and dangerous job of the forward air controller was during the Vietnam War."-Air Power History
"Something made Flanagan mad in Vietnam, and it just won't go away. What got to him was an enemy--not the Viet Cong of North Vietnamese Army but an immorality, an institutional rot that every American serviceman and woman had to deal with."-Air & Space/Smithsonian
"The author of this outstanding military memoir describes his experiences in Vietnam as a forward air-controller in 1966, piloting slow-moving, low-flying spotter planes, orchestrating spectacular air strikes ("saturation ordinance") and shepherding the long-range reconnaissance teams of Project Delta, an autonomous Special Forces outfit staffed by Americans and Vietnamese. A strong writer with an eye for telling detail, Flanagan vividly conveys what it was like flying hazardous missions in monsoon weather, bending rules and regulations for the sake of the task at hand, enjoying the camaraderie of fellow warriors and waging war despite critical shortages and malfunctions...The most dramatic section of the book tells a two-part story of the loss of a Project Delta team in an ambush and the night 16 years later when a voice on the phone said "My name is Eleanor Bott Gregory. Do you know what happened to my brother""-Publishers Weekly
"An Air Force officer's vigorous account of the Vietnam War...Flanagan's memoir is not like Robert Mason's in Chickenhawk (1983), where the naive young officer is transformed into an embittered veteran questioning all wars. Flanagan became a general. His job in Vietnam was to fly close in with small aircraft, to report and coordinate what he saw; sometimes, too, he had to don infantry gear and head into the jungle. Many of his blow-by-blow accounts of battles are drawn from notes...This is the perspective of a veteran who feels we failed because of a lack of resolve, that the news media distorted events or couldn't understand them, that the antiwar movement meant well but was wrong...Splendid tales of combat. Flanagan, a U.S. Air Force pilot in the Vietnam

Author Bio

JOHN F. FLANAGAN was among the first graduates of the United States Air Force Academy and earned an MBA from Boston College. After Vietnam, he worked as an international business executive, a presidential exchange executive, and a college professor and business consultant in New York. He attained the rank of Brigadier General in the Air Force Reserve.