Robin Olds - Fighter Pilot, a Memoir

Started by MKopack, Sat 05/08/10 07:31 PM

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Ryan K

Quote from: Bill L2 on Sun 05/09/10 06:29 PM
Right now I am reading "With the Old Breed" by Eugene Sledge.

Same here...some the early stuff in the 'The Pacific' makes a lot more sense now.

Bill L2

Thanks Mike. Right now I am reading "With the Old Breed" by Eugene Sledge. Soon as I am finished I will head to Barnes and Noble and pick up Col Olds book.

MKopack

Quote from: tony9409 on Sat 05/08/10 08:22 PM
Thanks for posting I was moved just reading the post. I now need to find the book.

regards,

I can't recommend the book highly enough - it should be available at most of the national bookstores (or Amazon and others online) although with the large number of sales the publisher, St. Martin's Press - who also did a tremendous job on the book, has said that there may be some temporary shortages.

When you find the book at a bookstore, even if you're not sure about buying it, open it up and read the first two pages. I'll bet that after you read about Robin and his wingman attacking 50+ German fighters in their P-38's alone - and then losing both engines as he lined up a shot - you won't put it back down.

This is Christina (holding the book, at the center left) with the St. Martins Press crew.

Mike

Anthony Leger

Thanks for posting I was moved just reading the post. I now need to find the book.

regards,

MKopack

Last winter an sale was held for the estate of Robin Olds. I was fortunate enough to have made the lucky winning bids on a couple of items.

Here are a set of pins of Robin's. I've been given a couple of pics of him wearing them on his Aviation Hall of Fame hat at airshows. Also are a couple of 14" x 20" (or so) pen and ink drawings, signed "Mason '67", from Thailand. As an old Air Force crew chief, if I squint hard, I can almost picture myself there with the then-Colonel as he's ready to step to the jet.

I've also got a copy of Winston Churchill's "Their Finest Hour" with a "Ex Libris - Robin Olds" label inside the cover. The book itself is great, I've read a lot of WWII narratives - stories of what happened, this book tells the why and how - from the fall of France, to Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain and the Blitz, to the Battle of North Africa. Robin's memoirs tell of how highly he thought of the British 'going it alone' early in the war, and here I am, reading his book, with cigarette ashes falling out as I flip the pages...

Mike

MKopack

Everyone has a "if I could meet" list, and I've been lucky to have met so many people who might have been on 'my list', but I never had the opportunity to meet the one who was at the very top, Robin Olds.

For those of you who might not know, Robin Olds long, long, awaited memoir was released just under a month ago. Robin had been writing what would become "Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds" for many years, but when we lost him in 2007, there were worries that his book would never be completed. Thankfully, due to the hard work of his daughter Christina and good friend Ed Rasimus (who proudly wears a "100 Missions North Vietnam - F-105" patch in his own right) we now have Robin's story in his own words.

It's all here, from growing up amongst a literal "who's who" of aviation, through West Point and pilot training, flying Lightnings and Mustangs in WWII, the Thompson Trophy race in 1946, the Air Force's first jet aerobatic team, flying in - and commanding - an RAF Meteor squadron, right up to, of course, leading the 8th TFW, The Wolf Pack, across the skies of North Vietnam.

I finished Fighter Pilot a couple of nights ago - for the second time. Four hundred pages, and I wish there were 400 more.

Christina, Robin's daughter, has said how surprised he was in the last few months before he passed away by the widespread outpouring of support for him, as his medical condition became more known. He'd thought that he was a largely forgotten old man, with forgotten ideas. It's sad that we need him, and his ideas now, as much as we ever have - but our Air Force seems to want to remember him as a simple "museum piece" without any of the lessons he tried to teach us all. It's up to us to remember.

They simply don't make them like this anymore. If you have any interest in military aviation at all, you owe it to yourself to get out and read this book - and a lot of people have. A first printing of a book is expected to be roughly equal to its first years sales, in the past month "Fighter Pilot" is now in its THIRD printing.

Christina & Ed, as well as Robin Olds himself, should be proud of these memoirs. I know I had tears in my eyes when I got to the last page.

Mike Kopack