Hit My Smoke: Forward Air Controllers in Southeast Asia - Softcover

Churchill, Jan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0897452151 ISBN 13: 9780897452151

Publisher: Sunflower Univ Pr, 1997

Synopsis

The Forward Air Controller came into his own during the 1960s and 1970s air war in Southeast Asia. In Vietnam, FACs were an indispensable part of the air war -- the link between forces on the ground and strike aircraft, "the hub around which the delivery of all in-country ordnance is dependent." Because of the terrain, the Forward Air Controller was a necessity.

Author Jan Churchill states . . . the cost to the U.S. was devastating, not only because of the thousands of Americans killed or wounded, but also because of the money spent, and the divisiveness amongst the American public on the home front. For the U.S. Air Force alone, 2,118 personnel were killed, 3,460 were wounded, and 2,257 aircraft were destroyed. . . . And 338 USAF Forward Air Controllers were lost in battle in the skies over Southeast Asia.

About this title

From the Publisher:

Cover painting, The Miracle Kham Duc, by internationally acclaimed aviation artist Keith Ferris.

About the Author:

Jan Churchill is a corporate pilot and writer, and an accomplished O-2 pilot. She holds an Airline Transport Pilot certificate with multi-engine and instrument flight instructor ratings, and a C-47/DC-3 type rating. She has over 12,000 flying hours in a variety of aircraft, from a J-3 Cub to the F-16 and C-5B.

An airshow pilot for many years, flying the C-47/R4D, O-1, and O-2, she has also owned and restored several warbirds.

She is an aircraft commander for the U.S. coast Guard Auxiliary, and is a member of The Wings Club, the Confederate Air Force, the Society of Aerospace Communications, and The Ninety-Nines (International Organization of Women Pilots). She is Squadron Commander of EAA Warbirds Squadron 8 and president of the Delaware Aviation Memorial Foundation. She holds a B.A. form Sweet Briar College, Virginia, and an M.A. in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia.

Churchill is the author of On Wings to War -- Teresa James, Aviator (Sunflower University Press) and The New Labrador Retriever (Macmillan Co.).

About this edition

• Publisher: Sunflower Univ Pr
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0897452151
• ISBN 13: 9780897452151
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 220