A Backseat View from the Phantom

A Memoir of a Marine Radar Intercept Officer in Vietnam

Fleet S. Lentz (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

229 Seiten

2020
McFarland & Co Inc (Verlag)
978-1-4766-8207-5 (ISBN)

Artikel merken

As a 26-year old Marine radar intercept officer, Fleet Lentz flew 131 combat missions in the back seat of the supersonic F-4 B Phantom II during the wind-down of the Vietnam War. His personal and accessible memoir describes how pilots and RIOs executed dangerous air-to-ground bombing missions in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

As a 26-year old Marine radar intercept officer (RIO), Fleet Lentz flew 131 combat missions in the back seat of the supersonic F-4 B Phantom II during the wind-down of the Vietnam War. Overcoming military regulations, he and his fellow Marines at The Rose Garden (Royal Thai Air Base Nam Phong) kept sorely needed supplies moving in while moving combat troops out of Southeast Asia. His personal and accessible memoir describes how pilots and RIOs executed dangerous air-to-ground bombing missions in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos--quite different from the air-to-air warfare for which they had trained--and kept themselves mission-capable (and human) while surviving harsh circumstances.

Fleet S. Lentz, Jr., Col, USMCR (Ret) was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps in 1969 and received his wings as a Naval Flight Officer in 1971. Assigned to the Western Pacific, he served in the Vietnam conflict in 1972-1973. After the war, he served as executive officer VMFA-112 and commanding officer of Headquarters and Maintenance Squadron/Marine Aviation Logistics 41, both based at Navy Dallas. Lentz retired from the Marine Corps in 2000 with thirty-one years of affiliated time and 1500+ hours in the F-4. He also worked for thirty-two years in civilian commercial aviation at the management and executive levels, including twenty years as North American Vice President of Volvo Aero, headquartered in Bromma, Sweden. He lives in Centennial, Colorado.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Prologue: What Did You Really Do in the War, Dad?

Section One: My New World

1. Going Down

2. The Base

3. Rules of the Road

4. Liberty

5. Housekeeping

6. Staying Human

7. Task Force Delta?

Section Two: Hops

8. The Phantom, in Brief

9. First Hop

10. Bringing Back the Hose

11. Silence from the Back Seat

12. An Award-Winning Hop

13. Watch Dog and Beer

14. Night Tanking

15. Flying in Laos

16. The Cubi Special Missile Shoot

17. The MiG Mystique

18. The Bunker

19. Frags

20. One Wild Ride

21. The Ten-Degree Run

22. Angkor Wat /Ankle What

23. Drop the Hook

24. Upside Down and Embarrassed

Section Three: Special Times, Special People

25. Gracie L. Zoobreath

26. Me and Mr. Tones

27. Clipper Wins

28. Christmas

29. The Chapel

30. The Brig

31. The Shadow Next Door

32. Salts

Section Four: Things Changed

33. Squadron to Group

34. Operation Sunset

Section Five: Takeaways

35. Takeaways

Epilogue: Going Back

Appendix A. Map of Vietnam and Neighboring Countries

Appendix B. Glossary of Terms

Appendix C. Marine Corps Ranks

Appendix D. Brief Timeline of the Vietnam War

Appendix E. Brief History of VMFA-115

Appendix F. The Rose Garden’s Legacy of Leadership

Appendix G. Suggested Reading and Viewing

Appendix H. Brief Career Overview

Index

Erscheinungsdatum	21.08.2020
Zusatzinfo	17 photos, appendices, glossary, index
Verlagsort	Jefferson, NC
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	290 g
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Militärgeschichte
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
ISBN-10	1-4766-8207-0 / 1476682070
ISBN-13	978-1-4766-8207-5 / 9781476682075
Zustand	Neuware