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Air Commando One: Heinie Aderholt and America's Secret Air Wars
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About Air Commando One: Heinie Aderholt And America's
Product Description Air-dropping agents deep behind enemy lines in clandestine night missions during the Korean War, commanding secret flights into Tibet in 1960 to support the anticommunist guerilla uprising, participating in plans for the 1962 Bay of Pigs invasion—even before the escalation of the Vietnam War, Brigadier General Harry C. “Heinie” Aderholt worked at the heart of both the U.S. Air Force and CIA special operations worldwide. In 1964 he became commander of the famed First Air Commando Wing, fighting to build up special operations capabilities among the American and South Vietnamese airmen. In 1966 and 1967 he and his men set the record for interdicting the flow of enemy trucks over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos and North Vietnam. Drawing on official records, personal papers, and interviews with Aderholt and many who worked with him, Air Force historian Warren A. Trest details the life and career of this charismatic, unconventional military leader who has become a legend of the Cold War Air Force. He tells how Aderholt’s vigorous support of low-flying, propeller-driven aircraft and nonnuclear munitions pitted him against his superiors, who were steeped in doctrines of massive retaliation and “higher and faster” tactical air power. In the mid-1960s Aderholt’s clash with Seventh Air Force Commander General William W. Momyer reflected a schism that still exists between the traditional Air Force and its unconventional special operations wings. The book also integrates U.S. Air Force and CIA accounts of some of the most pivotal events of the past fifty years. From Library Journal Air Force General Aderholt was the driving force behind the formation of the Air Commandos during and after the Korean War. Historian Trest, who has written over 50 official Air Force histories, tells the story of the development of the Air Commandos, the Air Force's special operations unit. During and after the Vietnam War, the Air Commandos' air missions included special cargo and personnel airdrops, combat missions using specialized aircraft, and intelligence and other missions for the U.S. military and the CIA. Aderholt also had to fight to protect the unit from other Air Force leaders, who thought it was out of step with the world of more conventional and exotic tactics and weapons systems. Informed readers in military aviation and/or history should be interested in this biographical account of Aderholt's Air Force career. This book could be well received by libraries with military special forces collections. -Terry L. Wirick, Erie Cty. Lib. Syst., PA Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review “Informed readers in military aviation and/or history should be interested in this biographical account of Aderholt's Air Force career.”— Library Journal “In this grandly entertaining work, Trest, a former air force historian . . . puts interviews, archival material and recent scholarship to careful use.”— Publishers Weekly About the Author WARREN A. TREST is a former United States Air Force senior historian. He was a combat reporter and air power historian in the Korean and Vietnam Wars and the Cold War. Serving with the Third Infantry Division in Korea, he received a Purple Heart and Bronze Star while reporting on the war. During his thirty-plus years as a military historian, he has authored and coauthored more than 50 histories and studies. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. ...the detachment continued to carry out its regular air transport tasks, providing routine and emergency airlift, flying the Ambassador and other VIPs around and making the frag run each night to a growing family of Allied bases. Another part of its regular mission was psychological warfare, which included aerial broadcasting of loudspeaker messages and "wide-ranging leaflet drops urging Chinese and North Korean soldiers to surrender or face inevitable death." Always innovative and willing to try new ideas, Heinie decide
