If you want a read about military aviation that you will not be able to put down, then
Solitary: The Crash, Captivity and Comeback of an Ace Fighter Pilot
Solitary, by Giora Romm, Israel;'s first jet ace with five kills in the Six Day War is more than a flying story.
It's also a tale of survival and a superlative return to duty after he was shot down and badly injured during the War of Attrition and was a captive of the Egyptians for months, where he spent months in solitary confinement, and then he came home in a prisoner exchange and recovered to fly again.
Romm went on to command 115 squadron in the Yom Kippur War. The 115 Squadron flew Skyhawks and Romm was a Mirage and Nesher pilot. He took command of the squadron the day before the war began and his first flight in the Skyhawk was a combat mission against the attacking Egyptians. He continued to lead the squadron throughout the war.
His book focuses mainly on his experiences in captivity, but gives lots of insight into his life and flying both before and after he was shot down. It's an amazing true story that is practically impossible to put down.
Romm retired from the Israeli Air Force as a Major General and went on to head Israel's Civil Aviation Authority, retiring from that post in 2014.
Highly Recommended.
4 comments:
Another good one, if you haven't already read it, it Yeager. There's a couple of chapters about when he was shot down over France. He explains how the French resistance got him to Spain and back to England. And his fight with the Army to fly again. Since the Germans knew he had been shot down, they were afraid that if he got shot down again and captured, the Germans would torture him to get the goods on the resistance. He finally did prevail and flew again.
I love these types of survivor stories. Better men than me, I spent most of my time in the Marines as a truck driver.
Yes, Yeager was a great book. And you're right that these are indeed great men.
Murphy's Law actually had an opportunity to meet Chuck Yeager and perhaps he'll blog about it someday.
I read about Yeager when I was younger and during my first WWII phase, after mainly SciFi. But my first real "adult" author that I read (after Len Deighton) was Leon Uris, and I read Battle Cry (about his Pacific Theater experience as a Marine), then Mila 18 before reading Exodus (and later Topaz). He was a big influence on me, as much as Heinlein.
I have blogged about it. Just go to my blogger search bar and type his name in. The story'll come up.
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