Paladins
A Phantom Pilot Comes of Age
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Narrated by:
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John Pitzer
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By:
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Thomas Shaw
About this listen
The story of Nate Carson, a young Marine pilot and naval aviator just starting his military career in the early 1980s. Nate suffers a trauma during flight training that provides him the opportunity to find himself in the process of learning to fly and fight the F-4 Phantom.
The audiobook features gripping and realistic flying sequences and immersion into the challenges, dangers, camaraderie, and hilarity of squadron life as it was nearly a half-century ago.
Includes a section that exposes the listener to terminology, equipment, and jargon that were used by the brave pilots and RIOs who flew this historic aircraft. Former phantom pilots and RIOs will recognize and relive their own experiences and the places they worked and played.
Those looking at this world from the outside in will learn what it was like for those who experienced it: tragedy, romance, adventure, adversity, heartbreak, and redemption.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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-
Story
Veteran pilot Clark Maxwell thought his fire bombing days were well behind him. But when Jerry Stein, Maxwell's friend and air tanker fleet-owner, calls at the height of the fire season to beg him to reenter the war, he doesn't hesitate. As the wildfires spread, whipped by massive winds and the federal forces arrayed against the fires reach their limits, hysteria and potential evacuation threatens the local population.
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Does he even breathe?
- By Thor Vadstein on 09-10-22
By: John J. Nance
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Hover
- By: Anne A. Wilson
- Narrated by: Angela Dawe
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Helicopter pilot Sara Denning joins an all-male navy battle group with little fanfare - and that's just the way she likes it. Her philosophy is simple - blend in, be competent, and above all, never do anything to stand out as a woman. But somewhere along the way, she lost herself - her feminine, easy-going soul now buried under so many defensive layers, she can't reach it anymore.
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"You Knooow Him!!"
- By Empress Karen on 07-30-16
By: Anne A. Wilson
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Viper Pilot
- The Autobiography of One of America's Most Decorated Combat Pilots
- By: Dan Hampton
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Sure to rank as one of the greatest aviation memoirs ever written, Viper Pilot is an Air Force legend's thrilling eyewitness account of modern air warfare. From 1986 to 2006, Lt. Col. Dan Hampton was a leading member of the Wild Weasels, the elite Air Force fighter squadrons whose mission is recognized as the most dangerous job in modern air combat. Weasels are the first planes sent into a war zone, flying deep behind enemy lines purposely seeking to draw fire from surface-to-air missiles and artillery. They must skillfully evade being shot down - and then return to destroy the threats, thereby making the skies safe for everyone else to follow.
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FINALLY A Pilot Tells it Like it is!!
- By aaron on 10-26-12
By: Dan Hampton
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Damn Lucky
- One Man's Courage During the Bloodiest Military Campaign in Aviation History
- By: Kevin Maurer
- Narrated by: Holter Graham, John Luckadoo
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was a world away from John Luckadoo’s hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee. But when the Japanese attacked the American naval base on December 7, 1941, he didn’t hesitate to join the military. Trained as a pilot with the United States Air Force, Second Lieutenant Luckadoo was assigned to the 100th Bomb Group stationed in Thorpe Abbotts, England. Between June and October 1943, he flew B-17 Flying Fortresses over France and Germany on bombing runs devised to destroy the Nazi war machine.
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must read
- By td godfrey on 10-06-22
By: Kevin Maurer
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Rules of Engagement
- By: Joe Weber
- Narrated by: Alexander Cendese
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Marine pilot Brad Austin and his carrier-based F-4 Phantom group fly into the heart of enemy territory daily without fear, but the rules of engagement hinder them nearly as much as the North Vietnamese. Restricted from attacking the enemy's MiG bases, Austin and the other American pilots are vulnerable to attack without the ability to retaliate, a weakness that tragically leads to the death of Austin's wingman. Consumed by the need to avenge his comrade, Austin goes one-on-one with the enemy in a battle that ultimately proves in war there can be no rules.
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TO MY MIND
- By Kevin on 11-28-18
By: Joe Weber
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To the Limit
- An Air Cav Huey Pilot in Vietnam
- By: Tom A. Johnson
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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From June 1967 to June 1968, Tom Johnson accumulated an astonishing 1,600 flying hours piloting the UH-1 "Iroquois" - better known as the "Huey" - as part of the famous First Air Cavalry Division. His battalion was one of the most decorated units of the Vietnam War, and helped redefine modern warfare. Johnson's riveting memoir takes us into key battles and rescue missions, including those for Hue and Khe Sanh. In harrowing detail, he tells of being shot down in the battle of A Shau Valley, of surviving enemy attacks during the Tet Offensive, and of a death-defying nighttime river rescue.
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Huey pilot's perspective of the 67-68 Vietnam war.
- By Jim on 10-15-18
By: Tom A. Johnson
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Warriors at 500 Knots
- Intense Stories of Valiant Crews Flying the Legendary F-4 Phantom II in the Vietnam Air War.
- By: Robert F Kirk
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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As the ground war struggled for success in Vietnam, it became intensely clear that the skies had to be owned by the allies for victory to have a chance. It was the F-4 and its pilots that made that possible. The author, a Phantom pilot himself, details intense stories of undaunted and valiant American pilots with their legendary fierce Phantom. These are personal stories of intrepid courage and self-sacrifice to get the mission done - whatever the cost.
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Great Material
- By Mark Murphy on 12-31-14
By: Robert F Kirk
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Guts 'N Gunships
- What It Was Really Like to Fly Combat Helicopters in Vietnam
- By: Mark Garrison
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 1967, Mark Garrison had dropped out of college at Southern Illinois University just before entering his third year. He had run out of money and had to work for a while. These were the days before the lottery and the draft soon came calling. In order to somewhat control his own future, he enlisted in the US Army's helicopter flight school program. Little did he know that this adventure would be the most profound experience of his life.
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Fascinating
- By Jean on 04-25-16
By: Mark Garrison
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War for the Hell of It
- A Fighter Pilot's View of Vietnam
- By: Ed Cobleigh
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In War for the Hell of It, Cobleigh shares his perspectives in a deeply personal account of a fighter pilot's life, one filled with moral ambiguity and military absurdities offset by the undeniable thrill of flying a fighter plane. With well-crafted prose that puts you into his Phantom's cockpit, Cobleigh vividly recounts the unexplainable loss of his wingman, the useless missions he flew, the need to trust his reflexes, eyesight, aggressiveness, and his survival instincts in the heat of combat.
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Best book on the USAF air war in Vietnam.
- By S. Mersereau on 08-26-16
By: Ed Cobleigh
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The Last Flight
- A Novel
- By: Gregory P. Liefer
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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The Last Flight is the heroic story of Gil Connor, an Army helicopter pilot as he struggles with the finality of a terminal illness. Haunted by the horrors of war and a turbulent past, Connor is torn between ending his embattled life and saving the survivors of a remote Alaska plane crash. Amid the turmoil of an approaching storm and almost certain failure, his underlying intentions are unknown, even to himself, until the very end.
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Bought because of RC Bray
- By Tm on 11-30-17
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Come Up and Get Me
- An Autobiography of Colonel Joe Kittinger
- By: Joe Kittinger, Craig Ryan
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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A few years after his release from a North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp, in 1973, Colonel Joseph Kittinger retired from the Air Force. Restless and unchallenged, he turned to ballooning, a lifelong passion as well as a constant diversion for his imagination during his imprisonment. His primary goal was a solitary circumnavigation of the globe, and in its pursuit he set several ballooning distance records, including the first solo crossing of the Atlantic in 1984. But the aeronautical feats that first made him an American hero had occurred a quarter of a century earlier....
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A rewarding read
- By Andrew Braddick on 03-25-13
By: Joe Kittinger, and others
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Making a Night Stalker
- By: David Burnett
- Narrated by: Matthew Moyer
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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David Burnett takes listeners into a unique world of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. His journey starts in a conventional army unit where he feels unfulfilled. This lack of fulfillment drives David to pursue his dream of becoming an MH-47G Chinook helicopter crew chief in the best and most secretive aviation unit in the world. David faces hurdles and set backs trying to achieve, but he is more determined than ever. He is trained and ready to deploy with the 160th, and it is nothing short of intense.
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Random lines from other chapters would play
- By Robert Stefan on 04-06-19
By: David Burnett