I've been enjoying Robin Olds autobiography as an audiobook. I just finished it on the ride to and from Gastons. (The unabridged audio book is over 17 hours!)
Like she says, a great Father's Day gift idea (although this interviewer is lame):
He goes to West Point, flies the P-38 and then the P-51 in WW II and becomes a double ace.
Watch and listen to General Olds talk about the beauty of flying:
He gets assigned to California, meets this beautiful movie actress named Ella Raines and marries her.
He horns in to flying the first US jet, the P-80 and flies air shows with an incredibly talented pilot buddy.
He learns he's on the list to be promoted to General and comes up with precise way to get in dutch to have the promotion torn up so he can keep flying.
He becomes the Wing Commander of the AFB in Thailand and dreams up Operation Bolo to lure the North Vietnamese Mig-21s to come to be destroyed - by making his F-4 flight look like an F-104 bomber flight. They kill 7 MiGs.
He gets into the strange positon of having to avoid getting credited with his 5th Mig kill over 'Nam so he can NOT be heralded as the first Ace and keep flying surreptitiously.
The Air Force needed a shot in the arm to improve morale at the Air Force Academy so they got a legendary Fighter Ace named Robin Olds to be Commandant.
He makes general and becomes an ops inspector who is appalled by the deceit and unreadiness of SAC.
Recommended!
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